I *think* so. I think workouts like Afterburn and High Step Challenge are both metabolic workouts but the difference is that HSC is also strength work whereas Afterburn is not considered a strength workout. So circuit workouts give you both--strength and metabolic training.
IMHO, metabolic conditioning today is kind of a catch all phrase, but it's really just a combination of activating different systems in the body, repeatedly, with short rests, in between, to me anyway.
Circuit training could be any number of things but here in Catheland I use the term meaning a workout containing both cardio sections & weight sections, often separate and alternating or including repeated sets of of different exercises of both cardio & weights together. At one time I would have considered a circuit workout, a nautilus type workout, where you could do any number of rounds working all the muscles in the body, one group at a time, for a total body workout.
Usually, to me it's like Cathe's Cardio & Weights, Low Impact Circuit, Body Fusion, etc.
I'm sooo confused!! It's the terminology! Can a circuit workout also be considered a metabolic workout? Then is something like Imax 3 a cardio circuit because you have intervals of high intensity? Or does the high intensity make Imax 3 a Hiit workout? Aaahhhh! I need Cathe to clear my head!
Don't the exercises have to be compound, like doing squats with overhead presses at a pace that gets the heart pumping? I may be wrong, but that's what I think it is.