Americans are not exercising enough – and when they do, they might not be doing it right. Only 23% of Americans reached the minimum amount of exercise recommended by U.S. guidelines in 2018, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But even a small percentage of those lacing up their sneakers and hitting the gym are likely making mistakes that could lead to injury, jeopardize their diet, or sabotage their long-term health goals.

We surveyed 301 fitness trainers and 100 individuals who started working out in the last year to learn the best pieces of advice for maintaining or reclaiming a healthy lifestyle. Our results reveal a treasure trove of professional tips and tricks, plus first-person accounts at the gym or the nutritionist’s office. Read on to learn from the experts how you can improve your fitness –and do it well.

Top Tips and Tricks

Hiring a nutritionist can be a steep expense for the average American, with prices typically falling between $150 and $225 for a first-time appointment. Meanwhile, personal trainers typically cost between $70 and $100 an hour, depending on the client’s area. It’s no surprise, then, that 82% of peopledidn’t get workout advice from a fitness trainer, while 76% didn’t get nutrition advice from a nutritionist.

For those who can’t afford that first session, we do have some good news: We surveyed both fitness trainers and licensed nutritionists to get their top-ranked advice for getting and staying healthy.

Among respondents who had just started working out, the most common advice was to keep consistent, followed by staying focused during the workout and focusing on a specific type of workout.

Trainers, however, rated these pieces of advice differently: Keeping consistent stayed at the top of their list (over 73% rated it moderately to extremely valuable), followed by keeping a consistent sleep schedule (72.4%), stretching and warming up before workouts (71.1%), drinking water (71.1%), and eating with one’s workout goals in mind (68.4%).

Nutritionists, on the other hand, were more likely to recommend reducing carbohydrates and sugar (81.1%), eating healthy foods like vegetables (79.5%), and controlling calorie intake (76.2%).

Take It From the Trainer

Working out can easily turn from healthy to hazardous –nearly 460,000 people went to the emergency room in 2012 for injuries caused by exercise and exercise equipment. In fact, 31,844 of those hurt had injuries so severe that they were hospitalized.

We asked 301 fitness trainers for their most important advice for working out. The top tip was simply not to overdo it (14.2%), followed by staying focused (13.1%). Trainers were also likely to remind exercisers to remain consistent, be mindful, and adjust their diet to fit the workout.

However, the top advice varied depending on the workout: Over 23% of fitness trainers stressed being mindful for low-impact exercises like yoga and Pilates, while nearly 23% said not to overdo it during weight training such as weightlifting and bootcamp-style workouts. For cardiovascular workouts, fitness trainers most stressed monitoring one’s heart rate.

Best Moves

When you go to the gym, what workouts do you do – and are you sure those are the right ones? To help refine your routine, we surveyed fitness trainers about their favorite moves for each kind of workout, whether it was low-impact exercise, weight training, or cardio.

Among low-impact workouts, the Lotus Pose and Downward-Facing Dog were the most recommended moves for yoga, while rollups and curls were the most recommended for Pilates. Those looking to incorporate weightlifting should know this: dead lifts (26.3%), squats with weights (22.5%), and bench presses (17.5%) were the most mentioned moves.

And to get one’s heart moving, butt kicks (26.1%) were commonly mentioned for high-intensity interval training, along with walking (21.9%) for aerobics.

Motives to Move

Even though weight loss is one of the most common New Year’s resolutions, the unfortunate truth is that most of us fall off the fitness wagon shortly after January. It can be incredibly difficult to stay motivated at the gym – but the good news is that our fitness trainers shared their top tips for keeping on track.

Nearly 71% of trainers recommended setting fitness goals and having a consistent workout schedule, while around 67% said to take adequate breaks between workouts. Sometimes, variety is key – almost 65% of trainers said switching up a workout could keep people returning to the gym.

However, which people succeed? According to fitness trainers, the top traits seen in successful clients were good exercise form, dedication to a healthy diet, a healthy weight, and an optimistic attitude. On the other hand, a lack of dedication to a healthy diet was the biggest saboteur for unsuccessful clients, followed by high dependency on the trainer and skipping scheduled workout sessions.

Super Snacks

Some experts have suggested that weight loss is 75% diet and 25% exercise. If that’s the case, snacking between workouts can make it or break it for those looking to shed a few pounds.

Most fitness experts surveyed said fresh fruit (55%), nuts (48.3%), fresh vegetables (38.3%), boiled eggs (12.5%), and yogurt (14.2%) were among the best foods to snack on. The worst offending snacks, however, were chips (27.2%), candy (15.8%), chocolate (14%), burgers (13.2%), and pastries or cookies (11.4%). Overall, nutritionists perceived a vegetarian diet to be the healthiest. They also suggested light beer in cases where an individual absolutely feels the need for a drink.

Don’t Give Up on Your Health

Exercising comes with a long list of benefits, including a dramatically reduced risk of serious illnesses like coronary heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, cancer, and osteoarthritis. In fact, exercise is believed to lower our risk of early death by some 30%.

Nevertheless, those of us who work out must do it well. Our survey of 100 individuals hitting the gym and 301 fitness trainers provides key strategies for people who are looking to live longer, healthier lives. Eating fresh fruits and vegetables, staying consistent and focused at the gym, and knowing how not to overdo it can make a substantial difference in all of our workout routines.

At EllipticalReviews.com, we compare brands and prices so you can find the right equipment for your fitness goals. Whatever your immediate exercise needs are, EllipticalReviews.com is your elliptical resource.

Methodology

For this project, we ran a preliminary survey of 100 people who’d started working out in the past year on what advice they most commonly came across.

We then surveyed 301 fitness trainers on their opinion of advice gathered from the preliminary survey and on other fitness advice. Of these 301 trainers, 153 trained in yoga, 135 trained in weightlifting, 120 trained in boot camp, 82 trained in aerobics, 72 trained in boot camp-style workouts, and 68 trained in Pilates. Trainers could select multiple workouts.

To show the top five pieces of workout advice from fitness trainers, answers for yoga and Pilates were grouped into low-impact workouts, answers for weightlifting and boot camp-style workouts were grouped into weight training, and answers for high-intensity interval training and aerobics were grouped into cardiovascular training.

145 of the interviewed fitness trainers were nutritionists, dietitians, or otherwise certified to give advice on diet and nutrition. Only they could answer questions around nutrition advice.

41% of the surveyed trainers identified as women, and 59% identified as men. Respondents ranged in age from 19 to 65 years with an average age of 31.4 and a standard deviation of 7.7.

Fair Use Statement

Do you want to share these fitness trainers’ advice? The graphics and information found on this website are available for noncommercial reuse. Feel free to share them as much as you’d like across the web, on social media, and at the gym, but please make sure to link back to this page. Thank you!