If you have ever wished you had a personal trainer to show you the ropes and give you advice to help you get the most out of you training routines? Well here's the next best thing, some of the best exercise tips to help you in your personal quest to get in shape.

One of the biggest mistakes people make is exercising too long and thinking that you can't get results unless you have an hour to work out. You don't have to necessarily have to have a solid hour you can get good results in fifteen minutes a day if it is focused and intense. Another trick is to work up to doing three to four fifteen minute sessions a day. This is easier for some and it will give you that forty five minutes to an hour that is the perfect amount per day.

Change it up! One of Arnold Schwarzenegger's big secrets for the increases he made in his muscles was what he called shocking them. This is one of the top secrets of trainers everywhere and one that I use constantly myself to keep my gains in strength and endurance moving forward. You can change the order of your exercises, change the exercises themselves, do higher repetitions, lower repetitions, multiple sets of one exercise, etc. It doesn't matter, just change your routine up and it will keep your body off balance. Strength and muscle growth are due to adaptation to stress. Changing your routine all the time will make your body respond.

If you want to see rapid strength increases then you have to make your training sessions more intense. Many people will reach a comfort level and therefore aren't working out hard anymore. Once you do this you reach a plateau and you stop making gains. By increasing the level of intensity you force your body to work harder and adapt to be able to keep up with the demands you are placing on it. Add more weight, reduce the amount of rest between sets, do circuit training once a week or more. Anything that increases the amount of work you are doing in a given period of time is increasing the intensity.

Everyone has excuses that they will use even to themselves to weasel out of training or to avoid a certain exercise or body part. Let me tell you the secret of the top trainers when it comes to this. You have to make the thing you have, the thing you love. If you hate exercising legs, train them first. If you know that you have a tendency to skip Fridays, make that the day for your favorite exercises. If you dread doing squats, make them the first exercise you do and learn to love them. I employed this technique myself and made my weakest points my strongest and so can you.