I’d like a good program, book, or URL for a beginning weightlifter who
is interested in a minimal program for health, general fitness and
weight loss. I’m a fat old man who used to weight train for sports.
Now, I just want to minimize the amount of time and expense — okay,
and effort 😉 — but I’d like to do some weight training for general
health. Weight loss, strength and muscle volume. My aim is to
increase BMR, look better, and simply get stronger and have more
endurance for everyday tasks like yardwork, painting the house, and
carrying luggage.

My overall goals are to decrease body fat, increase health, and
improve day to day functioning. I have good sound slow-loss diet,
stretching, and cardio training in effect.

Can I manage on one warmup set and one main set per exercise? I can
probably do 3 days per week, plus Pilates on one day. Also, full-body
or one session per week each of chest, back, legs?

I’m thinking 8-12 reps to exhaustion, but open to advice.
Mason Barge

http://www.kbnj.com/rkc.htm – a kettlebell workout that focuses on
strength/endurance will do what you want but it’s hard work. It’s no
chest, back, etc. – it’s work yourself from head to toe doing repetition
kettlebell snatches, swings, and jerks. The combination of a relatively
light but still heavy enough weights and high reps tends to build lean
bodies with just a bit of muscle, and lots of endurance as well.

Another thing to consider (the Wizard’s suggestions all sound good to
me, too, BTW) is Bryce Lane’s 50/20 idea – pick a single compound lift
and try to get 50 reps in 20 minutes. Bryce has a board at
http://b4.ezboard.com/btheironworks