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Every year, you set the same goal: this time, I'm going to start exercising. And every year, it doesn't happen. Maybe you get a gym membership, but your schedule is too full to actually go. Or, maybe you're too tired to walk there during your lunch breaks, or you hate that sore feeling after a workout. Now, you have a three-year membership draining $40 out of your savings per month, taunting you with the idea that you could cancel at any time.

What do you do? Do you just give up and enjoy the way the couch molds around you while you watch prime time reality shows? Look, it's not you, it's the fitness industry. Like any other business, fitness clubs are there to make money. For the very few who are hyper motivated, health fitness clubs are great things chockablock with useful (and some not so useful) gym equipment. For the rest of us, they're designed to get us to pay as much as possible and use the facilities as little as possible. Commercial space and gym equipment are expensive things.

How did super motivated people become this way? Being successful at something, more than anything else, makes you more confident and provides needed motivation. That success can begin at home. If you start with just the things you really need and work a little every day, you can convert you living room, or garage, or your backyard, into a working gym.

But, you say, I've already tried a home gym. I bought gym equipment: a cable and pulley thing that looks like a medieval torture device (with peck deck attachment, whatever that is) and it just turned into a clothes rack, same thing with the exercise bike with the moving handlebars, the great whacking fan for the front wheel, and no rear wheel. Towels do dry really well on it after a shower though.

But I'm just talking about the stuff you use, not fancy fitness equipment. To get started, you should try some basic exercises such as pushups or deep knee bends; however, it is important to make sure that you are using proper form. Your knees should not hurt. Another option is to purchase a duffel bag from your local military supply store, along with some 50 lb bags of playground sand from the home supply store. Separate the sand into 5 lb portions using plastic bags wrapped with duct tape, and load them into the bag. Exercise by lifting the bag from the ground to overhead and back again. Even if you get an expensive duffel bag, this should only cost you around $25.

Once you believe you've made some advances, buy an inexpensive set of weights and a stand for them so that you can perform knee bends with the dumbbells and also standing presses. Forget the equipment for bench presses, since it's not truly worth the cost. But in any event, be certain to see a physician before beginning (and don't let that step be just another reason for not doing your exercises!).