Q:  How long should I be spending in the gym ?  My personal trainer says 1-2 hours every day, is this true?

A:  You can accomplish everything you need to accomplish in 46 minutes.  If somebody is in the gym for an hour or more and has not really gotten a great workout, they need to increase the intensity of their exercise or stop talking with friends between sets - they have got to get more focused. 

There is no disputing that some "body builders" have achieved great results by working our for as long as two or even three hours  a day, every day, but many of the athletes who respond well to this type of training are those who are using an arsenal of bodybuilding drugs.  Those who are training without the assistance of these chemicals do not have the same ability to recover from exercise; thus we have to be very careful to stimulate, not annihilate, our bodies.  A great weight-training workout need not be absolutely exhausting  it should be vigorous and intense, but it is not an endurance event.

Excerpt from Jan/Feb 2001 Muscle Media Magazine.