There's really no way around it: if you don't use it, you're going to lose it-muscle mass, that is. And without question, the very best way to use and keep muscle mass is through strength training, otherwise known as lifting weights.

It has a kind of poetic simplicity: you lift a weight, you put it down; you do it over and over; you gain muscle; you soon find you are able to lift more weight more easily. You don't have to be either an Einstein or a Schwarzennegger to appreciate the stark beauty of that progression. However, lifting weights doesn't merely make you stronger; it also makes you healthier. Recent studies have linked consistent strength training with physical benefits as wide ranging as lowering cholesterol, helping with depression, increasing cardiovascular fitness, reducing diabetes risks, alleviating back and joint pain, and decreasing bone loss due to osteoporosis. And if a healthier and happier you isn't enough to convince you to take to the weight room, consider this: a person who lifts weights increases his or her metabolism every moment of the day, waking or sleeping, working out or sitting on the couch and watching Heroes.

It's pretty much the work out that doesn't stop working.

However, weight training can feel intimidating to people who've never set foot into a gym. All those medieval-looking machines. Those martial rows of ascending dumbbells. Those giant flat iron discs. The mirrors and the bright lights. And all those grunting, sweating people who look so intent on their biceps and seem so sure of themselves. It can be a bit off-putting to a stranger in the strange-usually subterranean-weight land.

So what's an aspiring dilettante weight trainer to do? Read on and find some suggestions that can help you toward a stronger, healthier, more buff you.

Lifting weights may feel like a young person's game, but it most certainly is not. In fact, all studies suggest that people who lift weights into old age maintain a level of strength commensurate with middle age. Though it may be too late to run, play ball, swing a racquet or step into a boxing ring,  it's never too late to lift. Start now, start slow, start with your doctor's blessing, and enjoy a long healthy life of carrying your own groceries, lifting your own luggage and tossing your own grandchildren into the air.

Read 'Em and Don't Weep

One thing you can do is get some books. Pretty much every trainer and her brother have put out weight training books. Poke around Amazon.com or your local Barnes and Noble and see what appeals to you. Whether you're drawn in by easy-going nature of Harley Pasternak's 5-Factor Fitness (Putnam, 2004), the star power of Jillian Michael's Making the Cut (Crown, 2007), the hard-core sincerity of Lee E. Brown's Strength Training (Human Kinetics, 2007) or the no-frills simplicity of Liz Neoprent's Weight Lifting for Dummies (For Dummies, 2007), you can find a really good book that will both work with your interests, personality and fitness level. Your IQ may be higher than your bench press, but that doesn't have to stop you from finding something that will help you gain parity in those numbers.

Make a Place You Call "Gym"

While many purists will argue that you can effectively strength train only in a gym, other people see outside that box. Sure, you can very easily join a gym and get everything in one space: heavy weights, trainers to teach you how to lift the heavy weights, and all the other white towel accoutrements. However, you don't have to go that route. Many people set up small weight rooms in their homes. You don't really need a lot of gear-a bench, a mat, a few dumbbells, and you're good to go. You can also strength train without weights-you can use your own body weight to do push-ups, pull-ups and dips; and you can use special resistance rubber bands that weigh practically nothing but pack a pretty big whallop instead of weights. The important point is less that you're pumping iron in a cut-off sweat shirt emblazoned with the face of Dave Draper-not that there's anything wrong with that-than it is that you're training consistently.

Find Your Own Inner Arnold

There are lots of really gorgeous things about strength training-the way it makes you look and feel, or how it helps you not only with athletic pursuits but also every day activities, to name a few. But probably the very best thing about strength training is that you only have to do it about three times a week and for about a half an hour that day. Which means that no matter how busy you are, you can probably find a way to squeeze some consistent resistance training into your rush-rush life. Whether you plan your work out in the morning before going to the office, at lunch as a mid-day stress reliever, or after your daily grind, you can find a half hour a few times a week, even if your life is as jam-packed as a can of albacore tuna. You do need to find your own commitment to your body and yourself, though, so embracing the Arnold within-that part of you who wants to make your body and your health a priority-will help you find that time. Really, when you look at it, who can't find a couple of hours a week to give to a pursuit that will provide a lifetime of benefits?

Think Outside the Box

A gym can be a wonderful place. It can also be a stifling hellhole whose very name causes you to run screaming toward the nearest Ben & Jerry's. Similarly, every work out done enough times can start to feel as old as another rerun of Seinfeld. When you start to feel like you can't bear your workout one more time, you need to mix it up a bit. Strength training most commonly takes the form of lifting weights, but it doesn't have to. Pilates, a form of resistance training developed for dancers; yoga, especially the varieties named "athletic" like vinyasa yoga; even martial arts, especially karate, all employ elements of strength training. When you need a change, find one. No one says you have to do the same thing over and over and over again and hate it. Many cities have alternative workout spaces such as Crossfit gyms (www.crossfit.org) that provide low-cost, hardcore and supportive classes for athletes like you. Dig around your area and your interests and see what appeals to you.

Then just go for it.