Christina Stiehl

When Alicia Rancier, 30, (@alicewolves on Instagram) went away to college, she fell off her healthy habits. Previously an athlete, she traded in her weightlifting sessions for study sessions and turned to fast food for all her meals. Not only did this cause her weight gain, but her health took a turn for the worse. After being diagnosed with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), Alicia's weight dropped significantly, and not in a healthy way. Determined to get her health back on track, she st

I have a confession: I hate running. Yes, I'm a fitness editor. Yes, I frequently attend running-based fitness classes such as Orangetheory Fitness and Barry's Bootcamp. And yes, I (begrudgingly) ran a half-marathon a few years ago of my own free will. But it's not my favorite form of exercise.

When it comes to losing belly fat, your mind may immediately think of doing dozens of crunches or spending hours on a cardio machine. And while these moves may help you burn calories, they're not the most effective method of burning body fat. In fact, you'll want to hit the weight room and grab some dumbbells or a barbell.

We can't tout the benefits of strength training enough: it can help you burn calories, build lean muscle, get stronger, boost metabolism, lose weight, and even sleep better. And while it's important to find the right weight to challenge yourself, you can't stick to the same weights and rep sets forever if you want to see progress.

If you're the kind of person who would rather hit up a workout class than binge a show on Netflix or who constantly reads up on the latest fitness trends, then you probably know a lot about working out and how it affects your body. But do you?

Walking into the weight room and seeing a woman lift a barbell with heavy weight plates and crush 150-pound squats is incredibly inspiring. And while some women are afraid of looking "bulky" (cue eye-roll), you can add muscle tone and definition with strategic training and nutrition.

When I think of doing cardio, I usually stick to my standard go-tos: the treadmill, the StairMaster, and indoor cycling. And while these forms of exercise are all well and good for getting my heart rate up and burning calories, they're far from the only ways I can get in my cardio workout.

You know losing weight is a concentrated effort and a lifestyle change: you have to eat healthier and in a calorie deficit, exercise, get plenty of sleep, and reduce stress. But even if you do all of the above, you still may be confused as to what type of exercise you should be doing.

My workouts have basically been the same since I started going to the gym in high school: I do cardio for about 30 minutes, then I hit the weight room for 30 minutes. In college, that was bumped up to an hour of cardio followed by an hour of lifting (which was not very healthy, and I do not recommend it!), but my timing was always the same: cardio first, strength training after.

Building muscle requires a diligent effort of strength training (such as weightlifting) and dialing in your diet. And while eating plenty of protein is important — protein is the building block of muscle and helps build and repair tissue — there's a macronutrient that's often overlooked when it comes to making muscle gains: carbohydrates.

Cardio Is Important For Weight Loss and Health, but How Much Should You Do in a Week? A well-rounded fitness routine includes both cardiovascular exercise and strength training. And while some people may adjust how much they are doing of each depending on their goals — more weightlifting if they want to build muscle and more cardio if they want to lose weight — doctors and trainers generally recommend a balance of both. But how much cardio should you aim to do each week? Not surprisingly, it d

What if a full-body workout was only a matter of hooking yourself up to a system of wires and electrodes, doing a few lunges and squats , and calling it a day? That seems to be the lofty claims of electric muscle stimulation, or EMS, machines, which promise to deliver a rigorous workout in just minutes of simple circuit training.

One purported benefit of HIIT is your body's ability to stay in fat-burning mode long after your workout is finished, which is music to the ears of anyone who follows their Saturday sweat sesh with a boozy brunch. Known as the afterburn effect, this process is said to rev up your metabolism and torch calories for up to 24 hours after exercise. But is this benefit too good to be true?

With their sleek aesthetics, club-inspired music, and cult-like followings, cycling studios have been on top of the trendy boutique fitness totem pole for the better part of the last decade, led by grapefruit-smelling, feel-good-mantra-spouting SoulCycle (which people seem to either love or hate). But there's a whole new game-changer beginning to take over the world of sweaty, sexy group workouts: indoor rowing.

Exercise doesn't exactly top the list of "most fun things to do with your free time." But it doesn't have to be the worst thing in the world. Take it from these people who used to despise working out, and now do it on the regular... and like it!

So, so wrong. Instead of spending money on a gym membership, what you really need is a month-long fitness challenge -- something that tells you exactly what to do every single day, no equipment or gym required. The Gym-Free Fitness Challenge consists of 30 equipment-free workouts (plus an initial assessment) designed to hit all the strength, cardio, and flexibility guidelines suggested by the American College of Sports Medicine. And it's totally free.

There's no magic secret to living a long life. Except maybe whiskey, which is something we can all get behind. But living healthfully into your 80s or 90s mostly requires a deliberate approach to incorporating common-sense, yet annoying habits like eating your vegetables, not drinking too much, and working out regularly.

You probably know to be extra careful when swinging around a heavy kettlebell, or to make sure the treadmill is completely stopped before hopping on; a broken foot or bloody nose can happen in no time, especially if you're clumsy. But there are some things that can go wrong, even when you have the best of fitness intentions. Here are some of the most pervasive dangerous workout myths, debunked.

Six-pack abs without exercise? Sleek and sexy legs with a few simple squeezes? Bulging biceps by just moving a ball thingy around? If it seems too good to be true -- and gives you some borderline-creepy vibes while using it -- it probably is.