The biggest bang-for-your-buck exercise has always been some type of squatting movement with weights. It involves the total body. The back squat — with the barbell across the upper back, then squatting down and coming back up — might be a little aggressive to start with. You may want to start with a goblet squat — squatting while holding a kettlebell to your chest.

Find someone who has a certification and can teach you the proper form and technique with weights, so you’re not putting undue stresses on certain parts of the body. You need to tell your trainer what your goals are. What kind of life do you want to live? Are you active? Or do you sit behind a desk all day? Do you have aspirations to do something like hike the Appalachian Trail? You’ve gotta be pretty fit to do that, so that will dictate the kind of training you do.

As long as people are getting some type of training three to five days a week, that’s usually adequate for general health benefits. But if you’ve got other goals, just mimicking what you see other people do at the gym isn’t the best approach.

If you’re a runner and overtraining, sometimes you’re at risk for things like tendonitis or a stress fracture. You’ve got to build up your body slowly to be able to handle the volume of work that you’re trying to accomplish, whether it’s with weights, cardio, conditioning or anything else.