Is Circuit-Style Training a Good Way to Do Cardio?

Longer, steady-state cardio sessions focused on staying in the aerobic zone has more benefits in terms of heart health, fat-burning, and recovery. As always, the best answer is 'it depends' rather than a firm yes or no.

My experience has been working with the general population - specifically, non-athletes. In this scenario, when doing most circuit-style workouts (squat jumps, burpees, barbell complexes), the concentration required to maintain the level of skill or technique needed to support your joints, and on top of that to maintain a certain level of cardiovascular intensity means that the resulting workout is neither here nor there in terms of strength and cardio benefits.

Longer, steady-state cardio sessions focused on staying in the aerobic zone has more benefits in terms of heart health, fat-burning, and recovery. That usually means forms of cardio that are more repetitive or don't have large variations in skill level or the need to switch rapidly between different movements, such as running, the rowing machine, bike, and so on.

Cardio sessions should be planned and programmed with as much thought as strength sessions, rather than a 'go as hard as you can until you feel like dying' approach. For example, my personal priorities now are improving cardiovascular health (tracking by average resting heart rate), joint health (no joint pains or aches around the joint, which I used to have) and running technique (always a work in progress!) Having metrics to track your progress is a big help in moving away from that 'go hard or go home' approach towards doing cardio.