Quality costs money. The cheap version of any exercise equipment, shoes, or gear will never be as good as the good stuff. It will fall apart soon. And you should buy it anyway.

If you've ventured out looking for fitness trails for the Lifehacker Fitness Challenge, you may have noticed some mysterious unlabelled equipment. What are you supposed to do with this bar near the ground? This slanted bench? Here are your answers.

If you live in a small space, you may think your at-home exercise options are limited to no-equipment, mostly bodyweight workouts. However, a suspension system or a couple of dumbbells can open the door to a ton of new exercises without taking up a ton of space or stretching your student budget.

Resistance bands are those big, rubber band-like pieces of workout equipment that most people ignore at the gym. Pity, too, because they're awesome and are incredibly travel-friendly. This graphic shows you the many strength-building exercises you can do with them, in and out of the gym.