I Tried It: Shape's "Drop 10 Pounds This Month" Circuit Workout

I like to head to the gym with a plan of action so I don't unconsciously skip some difficult exercise that I have not yet learned to love. I printed out Shape magazine's workout and headed to the gym.

The workout, from the article Drop 10 Pounds This Month, promised to burn 400 calories in 30 minutes. How could I pass up the opportunity to burn that many calories while strength training?

The circuit workout was created by Eric Von Frohlich, founder of RoadFit, and it is full of moves to improve balance, power, agility, flexibility, strength, and aerobic fitness. To see how the workout worked out for me, read more.

I really enjoyed this workout and felt pleasantly worked afterward, with sore hamstrings for a couple of days — that's a good thing in my book. For reasons unknown to me, the online printable version begins with exercise number two, so I decided to warm up with five minutes of cardio on an elliptical in lieu of exercise one. I was then only able to go through the workout two times due to time constraints (picking up my daughter from ballet), when it is recommended that you do the workout three to four times. Doing the eight-exercise circuit straight through the first time required a bit of reading to learn the moves. After resting the recommended three minutes between reps of the entire circuit, the second round went much faster.

In the 25 minutes I was able to devote to working out, including the five-minute elliptical warmup, I burned 200 calories. I am quite certain with two other rounds of the circuit I could have gotten close to burning 400. I love the plyometric moves, like jumping lunges, mixed with souped-up squats. Now that I know the routine, I will definitely be doing it again. This workout requires a medicine ball and a step — two things easily found at the gym, but not at my house. Try it and tell me how many calories you burn.