Starting Strength and Stronglifts 5x5 are probably the two most popular. These programs are based on what's called beginner gains. You wills start with what will feel like a very light weight, but you increase it every workout until you can't lift it anymore. You'll be amazed at what your body can do after 6 months of this.
When the parent said compound lifts they were referring to lifts that (when you are doing them heavy and correctly) are whole body exercises: Deadlifts, squats, and bench are the three main lifts. Programs will typically mix in some other lifts to round out the program a little like power cleans, overhead press, and bent over rows.
Most beginner strength programs are three days a week, I've found most people do Monday, Wednesday, Friday, but it's flexible as long as you have at least one rest day in between workout days. If you don't mess around and just go to the gym to work you can easily be done in 30-45 mins so under 3 hours a week is very realistic.
You will absolutely feel uncomfortable when you start. Everyone does. Read a lot about form and pay attention to yours (gyms have lots of mirrors, lift near some especially when you're starting out). It's really easy to hurt yourself once the weight increases if you have bad form. Consider getting a good personal trainer to teach you the fundamentals of the lifts.
Can strongly recommend Starting Strength, started out reading the book (written by Mark Rippetoe) back in January - started the program in February using the android app* as my guide. I feel better than I've done in years (I'm in my mid thirties)
Remember to eat well and make sure you get enough protein, otherwise it's hard to follow the program.
Starting Strength is a great program, but I can't understand how beginners are doing power cleans without any kind of guidance from a trainer. Power cleans are really hard to learn - it took me months of going to Olympic weightlifting classes to get even close to good form on them. How did you manage to learn this from a book?
Also, you need to be doing them on a lifting platform for the end of the lift, when you have to drop the weight all the way to the floor. Not too many gyms (in the UK, at least) seem to have these.
I did crossfit 2-3 times per week for 1.5 years around 7 years ago at a gym where there was a lot of focus on technique, so it's been a while, but I didn't start from scratch with regards to technique.
That being said, I'm sure I have bugs in some of the exercises, I try to work them out via. videos and focusing on technique before I put more weight on the bar.
All the gyms I've been to here in Denmark have lifting platforms, squat racks, etc. so that hasn't been a problem for me.
On form: reddit.com/r/fitness can be a good resource for form checks. You may hear varying opinions on smaller details, but overall they should be geared towards you not getting hurt.
I'll pop in since kettlebells usually don't get a lot of play when talking about strength training on here, at least as far as I've seen.
I'm an old school gym guy—squats, deadlifts, bench, pullups. I got curious about kettlebells a couple months ago after seeing how well they seemed to work on people I know who have used them. Now, after buying 3 kettlebells and a home pull up bar, I'm feeling pretty decent about sticking with these for the foreseeable future.
Lifting with them is far more ergonomic than using a barbell. Sure, you can't load as much weight but the payoff is that you are manipulating the weight through a larger range of motion. Pavel Tsatsouline's book was what I went with for the movements and of course there's endless content on YouTube showing the proper form. If I were really going hard, I'd do KBs four times per week and finish with a heavy barbell lift at the gym, but the laziness has taken over and I'd rather work out in my living room than walk to the gym.
Like anything, take it with a grain of salt but I have long been a skeptic of faddish exercise and these have been working great for me.
Pretty much all of the main routines focus around the main compound lifts which are bench press, overhead press, back squats, deadlifts, and bent over rows (or pull ups).
It kind of comes down to how much variation you want in your routine, and if you are focusing on body building or strength (or both).
Personally I started with Strong Lifts 5x5 which is a good intro. Has it's own app, easy to follow, and the guy who developed the program has a great website with video tutorials and written instructions for each lift. Personally I found it to be too much squatting (you do 5 sets of 5 squats every time you go, which adds up quick).
I then moved on to Greyskill LP, which is similar but instead of doing 5x5 for every lift you do 2 sets of 5 and then the last set until (almost) failure. I mixed in a bunch of accessories as well. Overall I felt this was yielding the same results as 5x5 but with less time spent in the gym each time. (once you start hitting the upper end of your strength, 5x5 begins to take between 1.5 - 2 hours each time when you account for warm ups and rest periods).
I have recently switched to 5/3/1 which is more for building mass than strength, and is a bit more complicated to keep track of.
reddit/r/fitness has a ton of good resources. It's easy to get lost in the weeds, but as long as you're hitting your main lifts and doing at least 3 sets of each, adding weight each time, you will make progress. Don't get too bogged down in adding accessories, as they are meant to help improve your weak areas when you get stuck on the main lifts.
Note to new lifters: Most important tool to buy is a spiral notebook and ballpoint pen; plan out all your exercises, sets, and weights before going to the gym, do reps for each set till muscle failure then write down the number of reps achieved, and use that historical set data to design next gym visit, this is the worlds simplest lifting program.
Another general note about "programs" is lifting is much like diet in that there are some plans that are very simple and some that are very complicated and both CAN work well although which works best for which person requires experiment. For example there are extremely complicated diet programs with incredible attention to detail and discipline, and then there's "Don't eat it if your ancestors couldn't eat it" and both can work very well (although one sells many more books than the other...).
Likewise the ridiculous simple workout plan is, on the short term, do about three sets with a five minute break in between, a warmup, max, and somewhat less than max, and on the long term plan your workouts such that you get muscle failure at over a dozen reps on the warmup set, and about 7 reps on the max set and 3rd set. Barrels of ink have been spilled on the topic of do two sets vs three sets or aim for muscle failure at exactly 15 for warmup as opposed to 12 or power lifters should max at 4 reps vs body builders should max at precisely 9 reps. All of which is probably true for various individuals in various situations. A better use of your time than reading and researching all that, is make very small changes to that, then look at your spiral notebook and see what is working for you personally.
The only other programs or rules to follow apply to all plans, its very hard to hurt yourself by moving too smooth, or too light of a weight, but the opposite is not true.
There's probably people more qualified than I am that can respond, but I have heard a lot of recommendations for and enjoyed https://stronglifts.com/5x5/
Note: I see Starting Strength recommended here too, which I've also heard good things about from my experienced weightlifting friends. I think they're very similar programs, and that book has a lot of good detail on technique.
Stronglifts is a good beginner program, but people over 40 would benefit from reducing the volume (e.g. going from 5x5 to 3x5), as it becomes too much when the weights grow larger.
If you are over 35 (and sedentary), I'd really recommend reading "The Barbell Prescription" https://www.amazon.com/Barbell-Prescription-Strength-Trainin... — it will be a much better guide than most advice available online, which seems to be directed at youngsters.
Starting strength and stronglifts are strongly interchangeable the biggest difference is the volume - starting strength is a 5x3 and stronglifts is 5x5 and stronglifts has a row while starting strength has a power clean. For learning starting strength the book is invaluable as the author describes each lift in exhausting detail, and that's important to understand when you're starting - every day in the gym I see people squatting who should have read some instructions.
I'd argue that at the novice range the extra two sets of volume aren't required - you will literally adapt to anything at this point. That's why there are so many programs that people feel great on for the first three months before they stop making progress. I do, however, like the row instead of the power clean, as many gyms don't have a setup for a power clean, and it's a technically challenging movement. Many years ago when I first started I did starting strength with a row substituted for the power clean, and that took me a good 8 months before I stopped making progress, at which point I jumped over to a 5x5 intermediate program.
I’m a bit confused with the statement that “many gyms don’t have a setup for power cleans.” I use the same barbell and weights for bench, deadlift, squats, and cleans. I would assume where ever there is space for deadlifts, you could easily use that space for cleans.
You use the same equipment, but it all depends on how nicely you can put the clean down afterwards. If the gym doesn't have a platform and instead has iron weights and a concrete floor, you could be doing some damage to the equipment. The same could be argued with deadlifts, but they are much easier to gracefully put down.
In case you missed the recommendation below, I'm gonna go ahead and second the GZCLP suggestion. It's much better than 5x5 and SS, deals with plateaus better and you can have more fun with it!
There's a subreddit for it and similar routines created by the same guy, too: /r/gzcl
It only requires 3 days/week at the gym and around 1hr per day
If you're starting out you probably need a trainer more than a routine. It's really easy to injure yourself and you can't necessarily learn the proper movements from watching videos online. Talk to the trainers at your gym and find one with legitimate certification.
This is extremely important. A qualified trainer (I'm one, but hate the work, too many people watched a program on a body builder and know all about it) will assess your strength and fitness, determine your goals, and then create a program to help you achieve them, as well as teach you to lift properly and safely.
Poor form can cause long term injuries, soft tissue damage, or even arthritis.
When I'm short on time I do the following routine that I got from my wife's fitness mag:
3 sets of 12 reps descending / ascending of:
* frog jumps - plank pushups
* reverse lunge with overhead press - spiderman crawls
* burpees - leg raise sit ups
Eg: do 12 reps of of frog jumps and one rep of pushups, then immediately do 11 reps of frog jumps and 2 reps of pushups, etc down to 1 rep of frog jumps and 12 reps of pushup. NO resting in between. When done, take a two minute rest, then immediately start the next set. The key to this routine is not resting, and maintaining good form. It offers me a great burning sensation when I do it correctly, and I'm done in less than 25 minutes flat.
