Just ask Kelly Ryan. Although her specific training needs - Kelly took top honors at the 2001 Pittsburgh Pro Fitness contest and is a favorite to take home this year's Fitness Olympia crown - are more suited for a gym, she readily admits to the benefits of training at home.

"If you can't make it to the gym with your holiday schedule, you can still get a great workout with just a couple of pieces of equipment," she explains. "This workout is an effective time-saver for somebody who's already in shape, and it provides a more comfortable environment for women who want to shed a couple of extra pounds in privacy."

Saving time and shedding a few pounds - talk about an unbeatable combination. Kelly's program calls for an investment of about 30 minutes a day, three times a week. Even harder to believe: Imagine finishing the holiday season looking better than you did before it began! Stick to this home routine and you'll be ready to really celebrate at your New Year's Eve party. What's best about this workout is that it hits all the major muscle groups with a special emphasis on your legs.

Before you begin, try to set up your home gym in a place with few distractions. Find a location where you'll be able to shut out the outside world and get into your workout. Make sure you have enough space, because all but one of the supersets in this routine pairs an upper-body exercise with one for the lower body. Combined with the jump rope, it's sure to get your blood pumping, providing strength- and heart-building stimuli, with plenty of calorie-burning, too.

"The goal is to put on lean muscle and get the toned effect," Kelly says. "These exercises concentrate on specific muscle groups and cover the total body. It's an extremely effective and thorough program." Kelly recommends starting out with a light cardio warm-up and stretches. If you own a piece of cardio equipment in your home, great; if not, head outside for a brisk walk or spend a few minutes jumping rope. Some of the exercises presented here may be new to you. If they are, experiment to find the right weight before you start the program. (Note: The program calls for 12-15 reps per exercise, but since you'll use a lot of energy when jumping rope, expect to use a somewhat lighter-than-normal poundage.) Once you begin the workout, you don't want to waste time finding out what poundages to use, one reason why each superset consists of one barbell exercise and one dumbbell, but never two barbell movements (which might require lengthy plate changes).

Start with the first pair of exercises, which you'll complete as a superset (back to back with no rest in between). Then pick up your jump rope and hop away for the next 30 seconds, but don't kill yourself, especially given the amount of leg training we're doing. When you're done, take a quick breather of no more than 30 seconds before starting the next superset.

"Rest long enough to catch your breath," Kelly recommends. "That's the time to get water. Just long enough to check your heart rate, get focused again and set up for your next pair of exercises."

If you need longer rest periods after you finish the exercise pair and jump-rope session, take a bit longer, but don't sit down and let your body cool down. Instead, walk around the room until you feel ready to continue. As in all new workouts, start out slowly, and build strength and stamina with consistent work over time.

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