I go to Planet Fitness and have observed there are as many routines as there are people. They have free trainers who can suggest a routine.
At this site you will find a picture with the 19 muscle groups and links to exercises for those muscle groups. I suggest choosing one exercise for each group that you find interesting. Watch the videos and read the explanations to learn how to properly perform the exercises. The LifeFitness machines have pictures of the targeted muscle groups, so you can walk around and choose exercises that way.
It takes me about six minutes per exercise including breaks. I have two routines I generally do. Sometimes, I do both in one day, and sometimes I do one a day. One routine is on machines, and the other is with free weights.
One thread that runs through virtually every weight lifting workout is "lifting to exhaustion" or "lifting to failure." For the beginner, I suggest taking this to mean not being able to do another rep with perfect form. Start out with light weights until you learn perfect form.
A bit arbitrarily, I suggest doing three sets of each exercise with 10 reps in the first, 8 in the second and 6 in the third. This is a good balance between building muscle size and building endurance. Start each set with a weight you are pretty sure you will be able to complete the set. If failure comes early it's no big deal. If it's too easy, do the reps slower to make them harder. I keep a log of all my lifting so I know what weight to use.
For each rep, I go two seconds or sometimes longer in each direction.
I separate cardio and weight lifting. Most sources recommend doing cardio after lifting, but there is no good reason I can find to support this. If you prefer the opposite, do so.
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