re way to progress steadily toward your muscle building goals is to engage every ounce of mind, body and willpower, from the beginning to the end of your workout slot.

Lifting Smart -- This means learning as much as you can about your muscles and then concentrating on the weight lifting exercises that will build or sculpt the parts of your body you are most interested in developing, without neglecting the other parts.

"Lifting smart" also means varying your exercises from one workout session to another whenever it makes sense. For example, one exercise will work a muscle in one direction--direction "A" --while another one will work the same muscle

I'm guessing that you do not have vast stretches of unfilled time in your life.

I'm guessing that you would not enjoy spending most of your waking hours in a gym, even if you had leisure to do so.

I'm guessing that your goal in taking up weight lifting is not to become the next Mr. or Miss Universe. (If it is, then you've probably researched what it takes to get there and already know more than I can teach you.)

In other words, you're a real person, with demands placed on you by job, family, friends, the house, the yard, the dog ... the mundane entanglements of modern life go on and on. But you also know that you need to get in shape. And even if your plans don't include winning a string of bodybuilding contests, you can imagine how great it would feel to step out into the world with a more sharply defined and muscled body.

The good news is, you don't need to live at the gym or put the rest of your life on hold to achieve a "hard bodied" look in a relatively short amount of time. What you do need is two to three hours of working out with weights per week. This is the total time per week, mind you; in practice, you would chop it into three parts--45 minutes or an hour of weight lifting on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, for example. Between those days you would either rest or do some moderate cardio exercise such as brisk walking or bicycling.

Carving out even a couple of extra hours in a busy week might seem difficult for some people. But how many hours of TV are you watching? How much time do you currently spend surfing the Web? Aren't there two or three hours you could easily reclaim from these (mostly) unproductive activities?

Two to three hours a week, spread over three non-consecutive days, yields a practical and effective weight training schedule for real people.

The keys to making this schedule work -- and getting the body you want in the quickest amount of time -- are persistence, consistency and "lifting smart."

Persistence -- This means getting yourself out to the gym, or over to that workout bench in your garage, every workout day. No exceptions. You should take your three-times-a-week appointment with your muscles as seriously as you would a meeting with your boss or a rendezvous with your significant other. Once you skip a day, it becomes easier to miss the next ... and the next and the next.

Consistency -- This means performing your weight training exercises correctly and fully at every session. Merely putting in an appearance at the gym won't do much for you if you allow yourself too many slack days when you sleepwalk through your workout, or start dropping some of your sets or repetitions because you "just don't feel like it." The sure way to progress steadily toward your muscle building goals is to engage every ounce of mind, body and willpower, from the beginning to the end of your workout slot.

Lifting Smart -- This means learning as much as you can about your muscles and then concentrating on the weight lifting exercises that will build or sculpt the parts of your body you are most interested in developing, without neglecting the other parts.

"Lifting smart" also means varying your exercises from one workout session to another whenever it makes sense. For example, one exercise will work a muscle in one direction--direction "A" --while another one will work the same muscle

ing a string of bodybuilding contests, you can imagine how great it would feel to step out into the world with a more sharply defined and muscled body.

The good news is, you don't need to live at the gym or put the rest of your life on hold to achieve a "hard bodied" look in a relatively short amount of time. What you do need is two to three hours of working out with weights per week. This is the total time per week, mind you; in practice, you would chop it into three parts--45 minutes or an hour of weight lifting on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, for example. Between those days you would either rest or do some moderate cardio exercise such as brisk walking or bicycling.

Carving out even a couple of extra hours in a busy week might seem difficult for some people. But how many hours of TV are you watching? How much time do you currently spend surfing the Web? Aren't there two or three hours you could easily reclaim from these (mostly) unproductive activities?

Two to three hours a week, spread over three non-consecutive days, yields a practical and effective weight training schedule for real people.

The keys to making this schedule work -- and getting the body you want in the quickest amount of time -- are persistence, consistency and "lifting smart."

Persistence -- This means getting yourself out to the gym, or over to that workout bench in your garage, every workout day. No exceptions. You should take your three-times-a-week appointment with your muscles as seriously as you would a meeting with your boss or a rendezvous with your significant other. Once you skip a day, it becomes easier to miss the next ... and the next and the next.

Consistency -- This means performing your weight training exercises correctly and fully at every session. Merely putting in an appearance at the gym won't do much for you if you allow yourself too many slack days when you sleepwalk through your workout, or start dropping some of your sets or repetitions because you "just don't feel like it." The sure way to progress steadily toward your muscle building goals is to engage every ounce of mind, body and willpower, from the beginning to the end of your workout slot.

Lifting Smart -- This means learning as much as you can about your muscles and then concentrating on the weight lifting exercises that will build or sculpt the parts of your body you are most interested in developing, without neglecting the other parts.

"Lifting smart" also means varying your exercises from one workout session to another whenever it makes sense. For example, one exercise will work a muscle in one direction--direction "A" --while another one will work the same muscle

ving out even a couple of extra hours in a busy week might seem difficult for some people. But how many hours of TV are you watching? How much time do you currently spend surfing the Web? Aren't there two or three hours you could easily reclaim from these (mostly) unproductive activities?

Two to three hours a week, spread over three non-consecutive days, yields a practical and effective weight training schedule for real people.

The keys to making this schedule work -- and getting the body you want in the quickest amount of time -- are persistence, consistency and "lifting smart."

Persistence -- This means getting yourself out to the gym, or over to that workout bench in your garage, every workout day. No exceptions. You should take your three-times-a-week appointment with your muscles as seriously as you would a meeting with your boss or a rendezvous with your significant other. Once you skip a day, it becomes easier to miss the next ... and the next and the next.

Consistency -- This means performing your weight training exercises correctly and fully at every session. Merely putting in an appearance at the gym won't do much for you if you allow yourself too many slack days when you sleepwalk through your workout, or start dropping some of your sets or repetitions because you "just don't feel like it." The sure way to progress steadily toward your muscle building goals is to engage every ounce of mind, body and willpower, from the beginning to the end of your workout slot.

Lifting Smart -- This means learning as much as you can about your muscles and then concentrating on the weight lifting exercises that will build or sculpt the parts of your body you are most interested in developing, without neglecting the other parts.

"Lifting smart" also means varying your exercises from one workout session to another whenever it makes sense. For example, one exercise will work a muscle in one direction--direction "A" --while another one will work the same muscle

at workout bench in your garage, every workout day. No exceptions. You should take your three-times-a-week appointment with your muscles as seriously as you would a meeting with your boss or a rendezvous with your significant other. Once you skip a day, it becomes easier to miss the next ... and the next and the next.

Consistency -- This means performing your weight training exercises correctly and fully at every session. Merely putting in an appearance at the gym won't do much for you if you allow yourself too many slack days when you sleepwalk through your workout, or start dropping some of your sets or repetitions because you "just don't feel like it." The sure way to progress steadily toward your muscle building goals is to engage every ounce of mind, body and willpower, from the beginning to the end of your workout slot.

Lifting Smart -- This means learning as much as you can about your muscles and then concentrating on the weight lifting exercises that will build or sculpt the parts of your body you are most interested in developing, without neglecting the other parts.

"Lifting smart" also means varying your exercises from one workout session to another whenever it makes sense. For example, one exercise will work a muscle in one direction--direction "A" --while another one will work the same muscle

re way to progress steadily toward your muscle building goals is to engage every ounce of mind, body and willpower, from the beginning to the end of your workout slot.

Lifting Smart -- This means learning as much as you can about your muscles and then concentrating on the weight lifting exercises that will build or sculpt the parts of your body you are most interested in developing, without neglecting the other parts.

"Lifting smart" also means varying your exercises from one workout session to another whenever it makes sense. For example, one exercise will work a muscle in one direction--direction "A" --while another one will work the same muscle in the opposite direction--direction "B." Usually, the smartest approach in such a case is to alternate the exercises. Instead of performing both of them during the same workout, do "A" on Monday, "B" on Wednesday, "A" again on Friday," then "B" on the following Monday, an so on.

The main lesson I hope you take from all this is that the quality of your commitment to improving your body is more important than the particular number of minutes or hours you allot to it. That's what a good weight training schedule is really all about.