Hope everyone's enjoying the deadlift challenge! Even if you're an old hand with free weights, deadlifts can be tricky to set up because the bar is on the ground, not on a rack, and you'll soon be dealing with weights that are heavy enough to be unwieldy.

We're deadlifting this month, and I'd love to hear how it's going for everyone so far. (I did one workout already, and will try to get in two next week.) But if you're new to this, or if you find the move intimidating, we have some suggestions for how to prepare.

Welcome back, friends! We’ve done a lot of bodyweight exercises in our fitness challenges, and last month we got out on the road for some running or walking. This month we head into the gym for some heavy lifting — but don’t worry, even if you don’t have a gym membership we’ll have options for you too.

If the phrase “lift with your legs” never made any sense to you, you aren’t alone. Trying to follow this advice can feel awkward, unnatural and ineffective — even though it isn’t wrong, exactly. Here’s what you’re missing.

You can get fit by running outdoors, or by exercising at a fancy gym, but in the end all your muscles care about is that they got to contract a bunch of times. Need a workout you can do when you’re stuck in one place with no gear? Ask a former prisoner.

How much weight do you need to lift to get stronger? A new study suggests it isn’t as much as you think — but more is still better when it comes to muscle size.

We’ve talked about handstands in our upside-down challenge, and attempted to balance on our heads yoga-style as well. Today’s focus is less about balance and more about how getting sort of upside-down can help you work on strength.

We all hit a slump near the beginning of a fitness program. Not at the very start, when we’re excited to get going — more like a few weeks in. It may take six weeks to notice more muscle or better endurance, but how do you get through that time without losing hope?

Squatting seems so complicated when somebody is telling you all the things that can go wrong — knees behind toes! Butt farther down! Head up! But not too up! If you’re following our challenge, you’re probably doing a lot more squats than you ever have before, so let’s talk about how we’re doing them.

Squats can be as hard or as easy as you want them to be. If you’re doing 100 a day, you may need to ease up to be able to get your quota in without making yourself too sore. And if you’re a total beginner, you may find the simplest squats to be more than enough of a challenge. Here are a few to try.

Get ready for strong legs and a poppin' butt, because July's fitness challenge is squats! This is the classic lower body exercise for a reason: Squats build pretty much every muscle below the waist, and there are a ton of variations for all fitness levels.

It's a beautiful day and we're going on an adventure! For the May instalment of the Lifehacker Fitness Challenge, your mission is to find a fitness trail (sometimes called a parcourse) near you - they're often hiding in plain sight.

If you want to beat your best race time, it seems to help to spend time in the gym. Alex Hutchinson at Outside reports on recent studies that confirm that runners who do strength training turn in faster times.

Crossfit's intense workouts are a polarising subject of discussion. It seems the first rule of Crossfit club is that you must never shut up about Crossfit club, and on the flip side, the sport (routine? Discipline? Hobby?) has its share of haters. So let's take a minute to cut through that for anyone who's intrigued but isn't sure what they would be getting into and whether it's worthwhile.

Getting ready to hit the gym in January? Here's your starter pack of all the information you need to walk into the gym with confidence and build a habit that will last all year long.

Video: This week's lunch break workout is perfect for people who can't move their legs, or who just don't want to. That's right, you'll work your upper body and core without having to get out of a chair.

We all know exercise is necessary, but if you don't like your routine, it's easy to give up. Let's talk about fitness routines we've been able to stick to, and see if we can inspire each other.

You've probably been told a million times that a squat doesn't count unless your thighs go parallel to the floor, or deeper. But it turns out that the opposite -- tiny "quarter" squats where you only move several centimetres -- can have major benefits.

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg once tried Jazzercise and has said she's a devotee of daily Canadian Air Force bodyweight workouts. But twice a week she reportedly does a 90-minute gym session that raises the bar (get it?) for fit people everywhere.