Simple Weightlifting Workout?

look up strong lifts. it's 3 compound lifts every workout. can't get more simple than that and still see results

i like 5/3/1 plan.

http://www.strstd.com/

If you're looking for something you can do at home you'll find most programs fall short. This is because actual strength building/training comes from doing compound exercises. But the most you can do with a set of lighter weight dumbbells like what you most likely have at home is isolation training. Isolation training will get you to your goal but it'll take a lot longer, you'll have to supplement your lifting with a lot more cardio, and you won't see the same relative strength gains as someone doing compound training.

The only ways to do compound training revolve around bodyweight exercises (and you will need an apparatus of some sort that allows you to to do more than just pushups and lunges and planks), barbells, sandbags, and kettlebells. Programs like P90X see strength gains because they supplement the dumbbell training (isolation training) with a lot of bodyweight stuff revolving around use of a pullup bar. The actual isolation training doesn't yield strength gains.

My recommendation is to pick up either an adjustable kettlebell or a sandbag kit such as the Power Package from Ultimate Sandbag. Those are all you'll need for a long, long, long time.

A "Body for Life" type program (http://bodyforlife.com/library/exercise/weight-training) is very "basic" and will build a base level of fitness. These workouts typically focus on major muscle groups, compound excercises and lower/upper body splits. If you've never worked out before it's a solid, tried-and-true way to put on muscle and increase LBM. If you used to workout or already workout you are better off finding a split body part routine with different days devoted to only 1 or 2 body parts most of the time. Currently I am using this one: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/kris-gethin-12-week-daily-trainer.html.

I will say this about weights, once you get past the basic stuff you have to find a way to keep adding intensity to your workouts to see consistent gains no matter what program you choose. It's not like cardio where you can just "put in the reps" and see gains, you have to keep challenging yourself to see repeated gains. The good news is that there are nearly limitless ways to do this because of all the variables you can change per workout: exercise pairings, rep range, failure methods, number of sets, rest between sets, weight, etc. etc.

I built my first weightlifting workouts using this website:

http://www.exrx.net/

They have loads of animated GIFs to show proper form, and every muscle group is included with exercises using any type of equipment you might have - dumbbells (what I started with at home), barbells, resistance bands, standard pin-set gym machines, and even body weight. Stretches, too.

Here's a beginner's program they recommend:

http://www.exrx.net/Questions/BasicProgram.html

I cannot recommend that site strongly enough - it helped me immensely when I was getting started and I still check back from time to time to check form or to add new workouts to my routine.