If you’ve ever been overwhelmed or intimidated by walking into a gym, you’re not alone. Knowing the proper technique to use everything from machines to free weights is crucial to keeping your body safe and preventing injuries. But it also takes expertise to make the most of your time at the gym, optimizing your workout to achieve your fitness goals. Just jumping on a treadmill and running for thirty minutes won’t help you on your wellness journey. A personal trainer can develop a workout plan that will get you the results you need.

Use dynamic stretching for mobility and preventing injury.

Chances are if you have any workout plan at all, it includes stretching to improve flexibility and strengthen your core. While there are plenty of benefits to a yoga-inspired stretching routine with breathwork, it’s not enough to improve your performance during your workout.

Dynamic stretching involves sweeping movements to release synovial fluid into your joints, improves mobility, and decreases the chance of injury. Make big movements, such as deep squats while flinging your arms over your head, or swing your legs back and forth for eight to 15 reps to get warmed up.

Vary your sets, reps, and weights to keep your muscles engaged.

If you’re bored during your workout, then your muscles are bored as well, which is one of the most common causes of a plateau in your progress. Change the number of reps or sets you do, and in the weights you use. By keeping your brain engaged, you can keep your body engaged as well.

Consider incorporating supersets into your routine, where you focus on the same muscle group for multiple sets during your workout to push past the wall and start seeing results.

Use compound movements to tone and burn fat.

Compound movements involve many groups of muscles, things like push-ups, squats, and deadlifts. They burn serious calories because you need so many groups of muscles to execute the movement. To get the most workout for your effort, compound movement should be the bulk of what you spend your time in the gym doing.

But, you also need isolated movement, like calf lifts, bicep curls, and clam lifts, to strengthen and tone individual muscles to improve performance in compound movements.

Follow a compound movement with reps of an isolated action, then return to the compound movement. Cycling through individual muscle groups while doing compound reps is a way to build supersets that deliver results.

Prioritize your whole-life wellness.

When you get enough sleep, take time for rest, and prioritize your mental health, your performance during workouts will improve. If you carry stress from work or relationships into the gym, you put yourself at risk for an injury, or a distracted workout that leaves you frustrated and unmotivated.

Take rests when you need them and take care of yourself outside of physical fitness to improve your performance in the gym.

Work with a personal trainer with years of experience in getting results.

Keeping yourself motivated, your workouts interesting, and exercising in ways to prevent injury all on your own isn’t easy. When you hire a personal trainer, you make a commitment to yourself and your health. A trainer has the expertise to design challenging, exciting workouts dedicated to realizing your goals.

Get Army Master-level fitness from the Paru Fitness personal trainers.

I’m a retired military veteran with 11 years of experience in the armed forces and a background as an Army Master Fitness Trainer. As an ISSA personal trainer, I work with clients to create bespoke workout plans to achieve their unique fitness goals, whether weight loss, strength gain, or shattering personal records in your sport. I offer virtual training nationwide and in-person training in the Las Vegas area for both groups and individuals.

Paru Fitness prioritizes the needs of the client above all else. I believe that personal fitness and nutrition are personal empowerment, and I devote myself to helping clients set and achieve new goals month after month. There’s nothing more important than your health; reach out for a consultation with a Paru Fitness personal trainer.