Many people who want to get in great shape and live healthier think they need to go to the gym 5-6 times per week and workout for 2 hours each time. This can lead to a lack of motivation (that's a lot to devote!) or worse, you could actually do this and over train your muscles.

The truth is, you actually don't need to workout near that much to get maximum results. When you lift weights or train hard, you damage your muscles. Then your body needs rest time to repair them and make you stronger. If you're working out too much, you will never allow your body to heal itself, which will bring any gains you're experiencing to a halt.

So what's the best way to exercise and reap the maximum results? It may not be as much as you think.

When you start your workout plan, you should only plan on doing hard training sessions (like lifting weights) 3-4 times per week. This will put about one day in between each workout and will give your body enough time to fully repair your muscles before you work them again.

Each time you go to the gym, you should only be there 45 min to an hour. As long as you make your workouts very intense, you don't need to stay at the gym longer than this. Keep in mind though, if you're only going to do a 45 minute workout, you need to get motivated and work really hard for that 45 minutes. Quicker, more intense workouts will net you greater results than longer, less intense sessions.

By following this advice, you could potentially be cutting down your time at the gym from 12 hours per week, all the way down to about 2-3 hours per week. Not only that, but you'll see much better results since you'll be more rested and able to work harder during each workout.