People say to use chess engines to analyse, but I also find them useful to play against. Computers are so solid because of their ability to calculate variations in a "tree-like" fashion effortlessly.
I started playing Shredder (because I have no-one to play with OTB) about 3 months ago and it would easily beat me when it was set at around 1200 elo. Now, after just a few hundred games, I can beat it regularly at 1500/1600 elo and occasionally at 1700 elo. It's good training because, unless it chooses to, a computer cannot make human-like mistakes. It doesn't suffer from mental fatigue, lack of concentration, distraction etc, so it forces you to play your best game if you want to have a chance at beating it.
Crucially, I think you need to be self-aware and make a conscious effort to improve. It's hugely important to think about why you lost. The old saying applies here: You learn more from your losses than from your wins.
How did you increase your chess raiting?
Ive found if the opponents i play have lower ratings, mine goes up 
Hello!
I was wondring what methods you used to increase your chess rating. What worked? what did not work?
Thank you
Twenty bucks via PayPal to kohai dramatically increased my rating...so much cheaper than a coach and less effort than all that study and practice.
Actually making an effort to improve, rather than just thinking I was going to get better by 'absorbing' knowledge from books or database games. When you're an adult its tougher to become a decent player than when you're a kid because you have 'stuff' going on in your life that impacts how much time and energy you can devote to what is essentially a hobby.
Most coaching is tailored for junior players because they have more scope to develop than adults, plus if they decide that chess is important to them they can devote insane amounts of time to study.
Its like learning languages, I can hold a reasonable conversation in French because I had to study it at School from when I was 12 to 16. I haven't even looked at a French textbook since then but if I was starting to learn a language now I would want to be fluent in 6 months, forgetting it took me 5 years to pick up French. Chess players want that instant gratification as well, but in reality its a long slog unless you have some innate gift for calculation or understanding positional concepts.
Actually making an effort to improve, rather than just thinking I was going to get better by 'absorbing' knowledge from books or database games. When you're an adult its tougher to become a decent player than when you're a kid because you have 'stuff' going on in your life that impacts how much time and energy you can devote to what is essentially a hobby.
That advice is very helpful, also here's an article on pattern recognition (perhaps what really separates amateurs to masters):
http://blog.chess.com/view/train-your-chess-skill-using-priciples-of-neuropsychology
thank you for the very good question
Pushups. The chess kind, though.
Don't forget to stretch first.
I think it's important to play opponents of a similar rating (+/- 50, 20 games +). This way you can get a grasp of what level you are that.
If you keep winning, keep playing. If you are starting to lose more than 50% of your last 10 games, then stop playing and focus on studying where you are making mistakes. I can't recommend the study series on this site enough. http://www.chess.com/article/view/study-plan-directory.
Don't take on too many 'correspondence' games. You want to be playing your best chess. As for 'live' chess, my advice, if you are like me and hate losing, is to play until you lose, then stop and come back another day.