Laying the right foundation

Whether you're fresh to the gym or are just coming back after a long layoff, there will be a phase which has great benefits - and setbacks.

The good news is that you'll probably have a much easier time packing on muscle mass than at any other point in your bodybuilding career.
The bad news is that you'll have to take your sweet time in learning the groove of the movements, which can take a while for complex exercises such as squats or deadlifts. However, it's an absolute necessity to get the form right at this stage - otherwise you're building a mind-muscle connection set on the "wrong" grounds, which will - at best - be hard to unlearn later, or - at worst - earn you a nasty injury once you've started piling on the weight plates.

Don't go for conventional wisdom
Some people reason that a fresh guy should stick with the easy stuff that won't get him injured, which is essentially machines. The point here would be that since the body is pretty much fixed, there's no way to fail to do the movements right. That means no injury, and everybody happy, right?
I disagree. It's like putting a student driver in a car with autopilot when he's taking his driving test. Sure, he'll be fine during the test - but what happens when he sits down in a NORMAL car and pulls out into the real traffic? Pretty much the same as a guy who never got the basics right, but has gained enough strength to hurt himself really bad when he tries anything BUT machine movements (and this day will come, if he expects any progress beyond the initial rush).

Get it right!
So, my advice is to get it right from the start - master the classic, powerbuilding exercises while you're not as strong yet, and subsequently uses less weight. The risk of injury is way smaller, you have more wiggle room for mistakes, and you'll learn the "feel" of the right muscles working (this is especially important when it comes to back and shoulders - which coincidentally are the prime problem areas for sloppy bodybuilders).

Suggestions for getting started
Depending on how much time you can spend every week, there's a couple of different setups.
In my example, I assume we have a normal working guy who's already short on time, so we're starting with a minimum of time - 2 workouts per week.

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