Fitness Tips and Strategies from the Experts Top 25 (3rd page)

Are you tired of putting in the effort at the gym and not seeing results? Many people show the drive, determination, and consistent effort, but don't reach their goals. If this sounds familiar, the next logical step is usually to find an educated personal trainer with proven experience. But, if you're not ready to take that step, or if you'd prefer to go it alone, rest assured, we spoke to some of the nation's finest personal trainers who gave us 25 insightful tips and strategies specifically designed to help you build strength, gain muscle mass, lose fat, enhance your endurance and maintain healthy eating habits.

ENDURANCE TRAINING: 11. Prepare Yourself

When it comes to training for endurance, you’ll need to be hydrated and be sure you’re eating properly because, by its very nature, this form of training is very demanding on your body. You should be doing a good mix of cardio and weight training. And, to increase your aerobic capacity, you should incorporate intense interval training. You’ll likely be sweating buckets and burning calories galore, so be prepared.

12. Heart Rate Monitor

If you already own a heart rate monitor, considering all the exercises you’ll be performing, this would be a good time to use it. If not, you may want to either go out and buy one, or learn how to do it yourself. Why? Duffy advises to “monitor your heart rate” because “it’s not just doing it and doing it for 60 minutes, it’s am I doing it hard enough for 60 minutes.”

13. Exhaust for Endurance

To further your endurance training, you need to put in total effort. Boyce says, “you’re going for muscle exhaustion, so remember to fully exhaust the muscles.” How can you do that? Boyce suggests that you “get good at the bodyweight staples – pull ups, chin ups, push ups, inverted rows, (and) squats.” He adds that, “if you can master these movements for high reps, your muscles will get well conditioned.”

14. Reduce Rest Time

It’s always tempting to take a break when training, but LaCerte advises that you should “stick with rest times of 30 to 45 seconds between sets” because he says “this will help increase your overall endurance.” LaCerte adds that “if you are strength training, lift moderate to heavy weight and keep your rep range between 8 to 15 reps,” or “if you’re running, mix duration cardio with sprinting.”

15. Fight Fatigue

Fatigue may be your biggest enemy when endurance training, but Cardiello gave us some tips to fight it. First, drink beet juice because “it can actually increase stamina by up to 16%” and it “helps your muscles produce more energy, more efficiently, making exercise less exhausting.” Another way to boost your performance is by carefully selecting your music because a recent study suggested that, “when people listen to favorable music their blood vessels expanded 26%.”

Previous Next