The quantity of exercise equipment available to you at a gym might be just as important as the quality of the machines, weights and other facilities. Good use of your gym membership includes taking advantage of more than one or two pieces of equipment to help you prevent repetitive stress, plateauing, boredom and one-dimensional workouts.
Warm Up
Start each exercise routine at a gym with a moderate-intensity warmup. Use dynamic muscle movements, rather than static stretches, which can desensitize your muscle for 15 minutes or longer. Use a cardiovascular machine at a slow speed to raise your heart rate and warm your muscles gradually, even if you are planning on a weight workout.
Raise Your Heart Rate
Unless your only goal is bodybuilding, raise your heart rate to a safe level. For beginners, this might be a pace similar to a brisk walk. For more advanced exercisers, a pace similar to a jog is appropriate. The key to finding the right target heart rate for you is to find the maximum intensity you can sustain without having to stop during your walk, jog, peddling, rowing, swimming or other workout. If you use a machine with a heart rate monitor, stay between 50 and 65 percent of your maximum heart rate if you are a beginner, and between 70 and 80 percent if you are ready for aerobic exercise. You can approximate your maximum heart rate in beats per minute by subtracting your age from 220.
Use Your Muscles
You can raise your heart rate without putting forth strenuous muscular effort by using certain cardio machines. This results in less calorie burning and a lower post-workout calorie burn. Add resistance exercises to your workout routine to get the maximum benefit of going to the gym. Resistance exercises help build muscle, improve bone health and burn more calories. Use cardio machines that offer resistance via different inclines, tensions, gear settings or other means. Move back and forth between a cardio machine and weights every 15 minutes to raise and lower your heart rate while working your muscles.
Cool Down
Finish your exercise routine each time by slowing your movements to lower your heart rate gradually until you are no longer sweating or breathing hard. Shake your arms and raise your knees to your chest as you cool down to help your muscles recover from strenuous activity. As part of your cooldown, stretch your muscles to help lengthen them and prevent later tightness and soreness.
Sample Workout
Warm up on a treadmill for 5 minutes, increasing your speed by .5 mph every minute until you reach your target heart rate. Continue at that pace for another 10 minutes. Move from the treadmill to a universal weight machine or use dumbbells to perform exercises with about 50 percent of the maximum weight you can lift. Perform 10 to 12 repetitions of an upper-body exercise, then take a short break. Perform 10 to 12 reps of a lower-body exercise and repeat this pattern for 10 to 15 minutes. Get on a rowing machine or elliptical with arm poles for 10 to 15 minutes and exercise at your target heart rate. Add more exercise circuits like these, or repeat ones you've already performed, depending on the length of your workout. Cool down by walking around the gym, shaking out your arms and legs. Stretch.
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