University researchers in the Midwest wanted to find out if beginner exercisers were lifting the right amount of weight when exercising. They studied 30 men and women, asking them to choose their weights for five different exercises. The majority of the participants chose weights that were too low (42% - 57% of their One-Rep Max) to result in any physical gains.

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The One Rep Max (1 RM) is the highest possible weight you could lift on a particular exercise if you only did one repetition. When strength training, you should be lifting a weight that is about 60-70% of this 1 RM. While a trainer could help you figure this out, here's an easier way: With a bit of trial and error, find a weight that you can lift (with proper form) at least 8 times, but no more than 15. As you get stronger, and reach 15 reps, it's time to increase your weight again.

Although yoga has been around for thousands of years, it's become increasingly popular in recent years and has undergone quite the makeover. There are intense, sweaty styles of yoga that make the muscles of even the fitness people tremble; there are gentle forms of yoga that are suited for beginners; and there are even specialty yoga classes for athletes (think runners, swimmers, cyclists), people with arthritis, kids and even pregnant women.

Yoga offers many benefits, from reduced stress to improved strength and flexibility. But it can also be intimidating to many people. You might feel that you just "don't bend that way" or might not be able to keep up with others in a class, or have physical limitations that prevent you from easily moving up from and down to the floor or standing for a full hour. Enter chair yoga, a gentle style of yoga you can do from a (mostly) seated position that also incorporates the breathing and mind-body benefits of a traditional class.

Read more: 8 Seated Yoga Poses You Can Do from a Chair

If you've ever tried to break a bad habit, health-related or otherwise, you know how difficult it can be. Every morning, you awake to a daunting, gut-wrenching choice: to commit to change or to fall short of your goals. Those of you who have taken on the challenge of becoming your healthiest self can attest that this choice especially applies to creating changes in your diet and exercise routines. We all realize that the trick to lasting good health lies in mastering positive fitness and nutrition habits. But how can you put bad habits behind you and make wellness your main priority... every single day?

When attempting to dial back unhealthy behaviors, you're up against several obstacles:

It is likely that you've been practicing your unhealthy behavior over and over again for decades. Since your first childhood experience with brussel sprouts, you've become a master at avoiding vegetables. Since middle-school gym class, you've become adept at excusing yourself from exercise. Because you've been forming those unhealthy habits for so long, it isn't easy to leave them behind.

Efficiency and convenience are another knock against your good-health goals: unhealthy habits are often much easier than the alternative. Should I drive to work or ride my bike? Play football with the kids or rent a movie? Chop and prep fresh veggies or hit the drive-thru? Usually, unhealthy alternatives save us lots of time and require less physical and mental effort than their healthy counterparts. We've created such an efficient society that making good choices is almost impossible next to the not-so-healthy, yet quick and easy options.

Read more: 4 Mindless Habits That Are Hurting Your Weight Loss

You hear all the time that to lose weight, you should track what you eat. Well, a 2008 study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine shows that keeping a "food diary" may double your weight loss efforts.

Researchers from Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research kept tabs on 1,685 overweight and obese adults (men and women), whose average weight was 212 pounds. The researchers encouraged participants to adhere to a reduced-calorie, DASH eating plan and asked them record their daily food intake and exercise minutes.

Read more: Lose Twice the Weight by Tracking Your Food