There's a lot of good advice in this thread. One thing I'd like to suggest to anyone new to lifting is: get a trainer. I spent a lot of years trying to get in

There's a lot of good advice in this thread. One thing I'd like to suggest to anyone new to lifting is: get a trainer. I spent a lot of years trying to get in shape, but never getting there, because I would hurt myself. I finally decided to get a trainer a few years ago for other reasons[1], but the biggest benefit has been a total lack of injury. Injuries often come from bad form, not working on small stabilizer muscles and/or over-doing it - a decent trainer will be able to correct for these cases. I'm almost 40 but I'm in as-good or better shape than I was in my late-teens because I've been consistent and working with someone who knows how to get good results. A trainer does add to the expense, but at least for me, I'd rather pay more for a workout that I actually do regularly, than paying for a gym membership I can't use half the time because I'm injured. [1] The other nice thing about a trainer is that they provide some accountability. It's much easier for me to blow off a workout day if I'm not also screwing up someone else's schedule/income.