• Accurate evaluation:  Personal trainers evaluate your fitness goals to design a progressive program that will get you where you want to go. This starts with a thorough evaluation of your current fitness level tha
• t can
  be duplicated in the months that follow. Your trainer will make sure you know just how much you’ve improved.
• Motivation:  Not only do trainers make great exercise buddies, they offer a no-excuses attitude to motivate you to continue working toward your goals.
• Perfect positioning:  Head neutral, back flat, core tight, shoulders retracted – these are some of the instructions your personal trainer is likely to command. Just don’t take them lightly. Better body positioning on cardio and strength-training equipment will help you maximize each movement and avoid injury.
• Education: A personal trainer knows the why behind every squat, curl and crunch you make and how it will get you one step closer to reaching your fitness goals.
• Follow through: Your personal trainer is invested in your success, too. When confidence waivers, your trainer will be there to pick you up and keep you going.
  

These fitness tips are brought to you by The Fitness Outlet, a specialty fitness equipment retailer for fitness facilities and homes nationwide.  For more information about fitness equipment or for additional fitness advice visit our Website ,  follow us on Twitter or join our Facebook Fan Page!

Most people wouldn’t mind a firm booty, but the more we sit, the softer our seat gets. To get a gravity-defying butt that’s strong and toned, commit to adding exercises that focus on your backside. To start toning your glutes, try these three exercises from The Fitness Outlet: Squat it out. Squats are often touted as the best workout for your butt (and thighs), and for good reason. Perform squats using your body weight, a pair of dumbbells or a kettlebell. Stand with your feet a little wider than shoulder-width apart, bend both knees and act like you are sitting back in a chair, until your thighs are parallel to the ground.  Keep your chest up, head lifted and abs engaged. Squeezing your glutes, drive through the heels as you return to standing.  Try a few variations like narrow squats, single leg squats or jump squats. Lunge, not lounge. Lunges shape the legs and buns and are part of most sports.  Keep your upper body lifted and step forward with one leg in an exaggerated step that is about double an average walking step. Bend both of your knees to 90 degrees if possible until your front thigh is almost parallel to the floor and your back knee is almost touching the floor. Return to the standing position and repeat. Perform an equal number of repetitions with both legs. You can try a few variations like adding weights and doing cross behind lunges or walking lunges. Do the bridge. Bridges not only firm the glutes, but also work the inner thigh. Start by lying on your back with your legs bent and feet flat on the floor. Place a towel between your knees and squeeze. Rest your arms by the sides of your body with your palms on the floor. Squeeze your legs together and lift your hips up off the floor, engaging your core as well. Lower back down and repeat several times. These fitness tips are brought to you by The Fitness Outlet, a specialty fitness equipment retailer for fitness facilities and homes nationwide.  For more information about fitness equipment or for additional fitness advice visit our Website ,  follow us on Twitter or join our Facebook Fan Page!

Your smartphone isn’t just for Facetime, Foursquare and Facebook. It’s also for fitness. More people are turning to apps to track their fitness, enhance their workouts, find better foods and customize their workout experience. Here are just three ways you can get fit with your phone with  tips from  The Fitness Outlet.

1. @BornFitness – Adam Bornstein is the former editorial director of Livestrong.comand former fitness editor of Men’s Health. He tweets quick fitness advice, tips and articles and encourages his followers to ask questions so he can help them live healthy and strong.

2. @MyTrainerBob – Bob Harper of The Biggest Loser, is a New York Times best-selling author who will hold you accountable by calling you out on your excuses and procrastination. He tweets the hard truth, encouragement and video workouts you can do at home or at the gym.
3. @ChrisFreytag – Chris Freytag is an author, trainer, health coach and a contributing fitness editor for Prevention magazine. Follow Chris for supportive coaching, healthy recipes, intense workouts and all-around inspiration for life.

By implementing plyos into your cardio and strength routines, you’ll help transform fat into lean muscle while increasing your heart rate and burning calories.

• Resistance: You have to apply an appropriate resistance to build muscle.  The amount of resistance should be above what one is accustomed to in everyday life.  Add this resistance by using weight machines, free weights, cable machines, various weighted tools or even your own bodyweight.
• Balance: Make sure to work the entire musculoskeletal system, to avoid postural and strength imbalances and injury. Work several muscle groups at once when possible.
• Rest: Rest between sets of exercise for about 60-90 seconds giving your muscles a chance to recover before you attempt the next set.  Also, rest 48 hours between bouts of weight training if you are sore.

Technology can get a bad rap, often blamed for the increasingly sedentary lives many people are leading. But your phone, tablet and television don’t have to be a license to sit still. They can actually be used as motivators to get and stay fit. In fact, in a global survey of exercisers, Life Fitness found that exercisers that use technology to support their workouts consider themselves to be more successful at achieving their weight and fitness goals.  Try one of these tech-driven tools to lead a healthier life:

Heart Rate

A heart rate monitor can be a great tool for monitoring workouts. Most cardio machines feature an embedded heart rate monitor that clearly displays how hard the body is working. You can also wear a heart rate monitor for indoor and outdoor workouts. To effectively us it, it’s important to know your maximum heart rate. This is the highest number of times your heart can beat in one minute and offers a key figure in determining training intensities. Using heart rate to create interval training sessions or steady-state workouts, can strengthen the heart and improve cardiovascular fitness.

Wearable Fitness Tech

One of the biggest trends in fitness technology is wearable monitoring devices. They come in the form of bracelets or clips and go beyond classic heart rate monitors. Meant to be worn at all times, these devices can measure movement, calories burned, heart rate, sleep patterns, skin temperature and even blood oxygen levels. Most also sync with mobile apps to help you track these vital statistics over time. Investing in these tools and seeing results over time can be a huge motivator. Some of the most popular wearable fitness devices include the Nike+ Fuel Band, Core 2 from Body Media, Fit Bit Flex and Jawbone UP.

Healthy Eating Apps

With the advent of apps that support meal planning, nutrition tracking and calorie counting, it’s never been easier to eat right. Find tools that fit with your lifestyle to educate yourself about your food and take steps towards a healthier diet. Not sure how healthy that granola bar really is? Apps like Fooducate will analyze the nutritional content of a product and give it an easy-to-read grade of A – F.  Meal tracking has been a long trusted technique for improving eating habits, and it’s even easier today with apps like Lose It!, which features a rich database of foods to help you count calories and even sync with Life Fitness cardio equipment.

Social Accountability

One of the greatest fitness benefits technology can provide comes through social accountability. With just a few clicks you can join an online community like Spark People or LFconnect to connect with others trying to get fit. Apps like Fitocracy and Teemo add a sense of gamification and competition with your friends. You can even take your accountability to the next level with GymPact, which charges you real cash every time you miss a scheduled workout.

These fitness tips are brought to you by The Fitness Outlet, a specialty fitness equipment retailer for fitness facilities and homes nationwide.  For more information about fitness equipment or for additional fitness advice visit our Website ,  follow us on Twitter or join our Facebook Fan Page!

While the temperature may have plummeted to half of what it was in the summer, fall is not the time to hibernate or put away your running shoes. It’s the month of gratitude after all, so lace up and be thankful that you can still run outside and participate in one last race or fun run this November, and even December. Whether you finish a 5K in 18 minutes or you aspire to run it without walking, grab your cold weather gear and squeeze in one last race.

Try a Mud Run. It’s not a dirty little secret; mud runs bring back the kid in you. Mud runs are like playgrounds for adults with obstacles, physical challenges and lots of mess. You can get dirty with your friends, do a tough workout and feel like a warrior when you finish. The courses can involve climbing over old cars, jumping over fire, balancing across a log, crawling under wire, slogging through waist high mud puddles or scaling over walls. And in between you are most likely jogging through uneven terrain and conquering some hills. Tap into your sense of adventure and embrace the camaraderie of these challenging and fun courses. As intense as they sound, they aren’t about winning; they are about accomplishing.

Do a Turkey Trot. Many communities have Turkey Trots or Thanksgiving-themed runs. Challenge yourself to a 5K and burn some calories before you feast on mashed potatoes, gravy and pumpkin pie. Or, find a Thanksgiving-themed fun run or walk you can do with your kids and relatives.

Run for a cause. If you missed the Turkey Trot, consider a Reindeer Run or any charitable holiday run. Many 5Ks and 10Ks support wonderful philanthropic causes. Find a race in your area and not only will you be advocating for your own health, you also will be advocating for a good cause. It is the season of giving after all.

These fitness tips are brought to you by The Fitness Outlet, a specialty fitness equipment retailer for fitness facilities and homes nationwide.  For more information about fitness equipment or for additional fitness advice visit our Website or  follow us on Twitter or join our Facebook Fan Page!

Valentine’s Day might be in the rear view mirror, but you don’t have to stop planning fun dates with your loved one, like sweating it out together at the gym. Exercising with a special someone is not only a way to partake in some friendly competition, but a way to stay accountable to your training goals.

Lift and spot. Whether at the gym or at home, strength training is an important part of a healthy workout routine and is often more effective when done in pairs.  Lifting weights with a loved one should reflect the strengths of your relationship, too, because the best weight lifting partners are trustworthy, accountable and motivating. You can spot each other with the heavy weights, help each other with form and encourage each other to reach your goals.

Set the pace. Go for some interval training, partner style. Whether indoor on treadmills or outdoor on the road, map out the number of intervals, time of each workout and breaks for recovery. Then, cheer each other on. Interval training in pairs is a great way to stay motivated and improve cardiovascular fitness levels.

Stay by each other’s side. Pick a cardio machine, such as the elliptical or treadmill, and work out side by side. But work at your own speed, intensity, desired incline and resistance level, so you can enjoy the company and a workout individualized just for you.

Class it up. Take turns signing each other up for classes to take together. Trying various classes can help push past your comfort zones, work different muscles groups and keep your workout routines interesting. Plus, classes allow for different fitness levels with modifications and the freedom to choose an appropriate intensity level.

These fitness tips are brought to you by The Fitness Outlet, a specialty fitness equipment retailer for fitness facilities and homes nationwide.  For more information about fitness equipment or for additional fitness advice visit our Website or  follow us on Twitter or join our Facebook Fan Page!