Stephanie Thielen

These 5 chest stretch variations require no equipment and will effectively stretch the muscles on the front of the body, including those in the chest, shoulders and arms.

Using blocks during your yoga practice is a great way to add stability, improve alignment, and enhance your poses. Learn some specific uses on the ACE blog.

Using blocks during your yoga practice is a great way to add stability, improve alignment and enhance your ability to perform a wide range of yoga poses. Here are four sample poses to illustrate how yoga blocks can help improve your flexibility and enable you to find greater enjoyment in your yoga practice.

You don’t have to be a born runner or athlete to start running and enjoy the benefits of being physically active. Whether you want to run on a treadmill, outdoor track, road or trail, here are eight ways to get you moving from couch to pavement in no time.

Strong glutes are essential, not only for aesthetics, but also for reducing your risk of injury and low-back pain. Plus, powerful glutes enable us to become more agile, jump higher, lift heavier, climb stairs, walk and/or run with less stress to the lower-chain joints, making everyday living and recreational activities more enjoyable and less taxing. Here are two three-exercise circuits that you can do at the home or gym to help build stronger, more powerful glutes.

Boot-camp classes present a great opportunity to facilitate a sense of camaraderie among your participants. Through team-building activities, participants focus on problem-solving, developing relationships and honoring everyone’s unique qualities and perspectives, all while working toward a common goal or completing a task. Here are four team-building activities you can use to help unite any group to exercise and work together.

The ACE Group Fitness Instructor Certification is an important first step in the evolution of a group fitness instructor. Once you understand the basics of leading a safe and effective class, motivation techniques, class design, music selection, applied anatomy and other key teaching elements can be easily applied to any group modality. Here’s a look at how the knowledge I acquired through the ACE Group Fitness Instructor Certification has given me the confidence to teach a variety of formats.

Rowing machines may not be the most popular machines in the gym, but maybe they should be. After all, rowing recruits many muscle groups and can provide a total-body, cardiovascular, muscle-building workout. Here is a brief primer on rowing technique, along with three fun and efficient rowing workouts to help you get started.

Strong triceps are essential for making everyday tasks easier—they also make the arms and shoulders look fantastic. This mix-and-match workout featuring dumbbells and a resistance band is a great way to challenge and strengthen your triceps—and you’ll never get bored because you get to choose which exercises you do with every workout.

Strong biceps are essential for making everyday tasks easier, from picking up kids to carrying groceries. This mix-and-match workout featuring dumbbells and a resistance band is a great way to challenge and strengthen your biceps—and you’ll never get bored because you get to choose which exercises you do with every workout.

Super sets can be a great way to create new strength-training challenges for your clients. Time-efficient and super effective, this opposing super set workout takes just 20 minutes to complete and, with little-to-no rest between each exercise, it includes a cardio component that keeps the heart rate up throughout the workout.

If you’re like most people, lack of time is your number-one reason for not working out as much as you would like to. Here’s your solution: An effective 15-minute, total-body workout, which will challenge your cardio and increase your strength, even when you don’t have time for a longer workout.

Planks are incredibly effective, strengthening the core, arms, shoulders, glutes and legs. And when you move beyond the basic plank, by lifting an arm or adding movement, you can dramatically increase the challenge of the exercise. Here are five plank variations that focus on lifting the legs and adding rotation to intensity the work.

Have you been considering participating in a mud run or other obstacle-course race? These events have become hugely popular—and for good reason. Not only are they challenging, obstacle-course races are incredibly fun. If you have dreams of crossing the finish line, this training program can help you get there.

If you want to avoid those dreaded fitness plateaus, you need to give your body new demands and stimuli. Fortunately, you don’t have to change your entire workout. By adding small challenges, such as jumping or rotation, or by changing body position, these exercise swaps will kick up the intensity of your existing program.

Dumbbells are arguably the most versatile and affordable exercise equipment available, making it easy to get a total-body workout at home or at the gym. Here are some great variations on traditional exercises that will get your heart pumping and build muscular strength and endurance.

You can no longer use the excuse that you don’t have enough time to work out. This quick 20-minute HIIT workout is just what you need. Try it out!

Need a break from traditional glute exercises like squats, side lunges and step-ups? Try this unique booty-lifting workout for strong and sculpted glutes.

Summer is finally here, which means it’s time to start strengthening and toning up for the season. In this three-part workout series, exercises for the arms, core and legs will have you looking your best and feeling strong as you take advantage of all the fun activities summer has to offer. This week’s focus: core.

Everyone from bodybuilders and athletes to novice exercisers perform biceps curls, each striving for that athletic look the biceps help to achieve. And while the biceps curl is a fantastic exercise, the real fun comes from the countless variations you can try. Check out these challenging, super-charged biceps curl exercises from fitness pro Stephanie Thielen.

Summer is just days away, which means it’s time to start strengthening and toning up for the season. In this three-part workout series, exercises for the arms, core and legs will have you feeling your best as you take advantage of all the fun activities summer has to offer. This week’s focus: legs.

Summer is just right around the corner, which means it’s time to start strengthening and toning up for the season. In this three-part workout series, exercises for the arms, core and legs will have you looking your best and feeling confident in your swimwear, party dress and summertime attire. First up: arms.

Having strong inner thighs is important for both men and women, as these muscles support your hips and knees. Try these 5 workouts for inner thighs today.

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) can produce equal if not better results than steady-state exercise—and in a lot less time. HIIT workouts can be done a variety of different ways, but one of the most versatile machines is the elliptical trainer. Learn why HIIT is so effective and give these sample training protocols a try.

The push-up is a highly effective exercise—when done properly, it can help you build a strong core and upper-body strength in the chest, shoulders and arms. And, with a few variations, you can reap even more benefits. Whether you perform them from your feet or knees, give these four push-up variations a try and you’ll undoubtedly see improvements in your overall flexibility, athletic performance and real-life strength.

Are you ready to supercharge your abdominal routine? Here are four exercises that challenge not only your abdominal strength, but also your stability and balance. Add in a couple of changes in body positioning and these exercises will provide you an overall improvement in your postural muscles as well.