Many of us have tried weight training in hopes of reducing fat and gaining muscle. We all know that it’s the only way to put on muscle. And many of us are aware that the best way to lose weight is to increase the amount of muscle burning the fat we want to lose.

So if we all know that weight training is the best (or even the only) way to accomplish our goal, why is it that so few of us are ever able to stick to it?

People give up

If I talk about the painful experience of trying to cancel a gym membership, I’ll bet most of my readers will know what I’m referring to. And I’m willing to bet that damn near all of my readers have some exercise equipment from late night tv — the Gazelle, the Ab Lounge, the Bowflex, the Nordic Track, the Fitness Flyer, or that silly thing that Chuck Norris sells — sitting in the attic or the basement or the back porch, with a layer of dust and cobwebs on it.

So why do we all get hyped, and get serious enough about doing this that we spend money on memberships and machines, only to give up after a month or two? Most likely because we’re not getting the results we wanted. Convinced that we’re wasting our time, and that it’s never going to work or that it’s going to take too long, we give up.

If it’s hard, you’re doing it wrong

But it doesn’t have to be too much work. In fact, most bodybuilders will tell you that they made the most significant progress during their first two months. When done right, a weight training program should yield very exciting results right away — enough that you will have no problem sticking to it.

My motto in life is, “If it’s hard, you’re doing it wrong.” I don’t believe that anything has to be hard. When it is, you just need to find a better way.

It starts with common sense

You can’t get stronger if you don’t increase your weights. For some reason, people seem to think they can just use the same weight over and over, forever, and that they’ll somehow get stronger and stronger. They’re wrong.

You can’t get stronger until you know how strong you currently are. First you have to find your limit. Keep adding weight until you can’t lift it, or press it, or squat it, or whatever exercise you’re doing.

Expect exciting results

Once you’ve found your limit, you should find that you’re able to increase it by 5 lbs every week. That’s approximately 50 lbs over two months! In other words, if you start off only able to bench-press 150 lbs, you should be putting up 200 lbs (or close) by the end of your second month.

Those are exciting results, and you should be seeing them on all of your exercises. Seeing that improvement should be enough to motivate you by itself, but the development in your body over that time should be significant and exciting as well.

It all starts with common sense, though. You can’t get stronger if you don’t add more weight.