Full-body workout for general fitness and weight loss or maintenance

I’m currently following a three-times-a-week, full-body workout routine. I'm not really into bodybuilding -- I'm too old for that -- but just general physical fitness to keep my bones, lungs and heart healthy and keep my weight down. For overall fitness and weight loss or maintenance a full-body routine is much better than a split routine, especially if you focus on compound, multijoint exercises rather than isolation moves.

My routine is based on the "big four" compound exercises: the squat, deadlift, bench press, and shoulder press. These exercises burn more calories than single-joint exercises like curls, flyes, raises, and extensions. But that doesn't mean I don't do isolation movements. I usually do them as finishers at the end of each workout.

Here's my workout routine (3 to 5 sets of 5 to 8 reps per exercise):

1. Bench presses (chest, triceps, front shoulders) -- I usually do the bench press first not because it's the most important exercise but because the bench-press rack is the most used equipment in the gym. So when I enter the gym and see a vacant bench-press rack I start doing bench presses right away.
2. Squats (legs, butt, lower back, abs) or deadlifts (legs, butt, back, arms, shoulders, abs) -- Squats and deadlifts are very taxing on the body and the nervous system, so I usually do only either squats or deadlifts per workout. But sometimes when I feel strong I'll do light squats and heavy deadlifts or heavy squats and light deadlifts.
3. Bent-over rows or lat pull-downs (back, biceps, rear shoulders) -- I alternate between overhand and underhand grips for rows and wide and narrow grips for pull-downs to keep things balanced.
4. Shoulder presses (shoulders, triceps) or upright rows (shoulders, biceps) -- I like to do shoulder presses standing up rather than sitting down because doing them upright engages the core at the same time. I also like to "clean" the barbell from the floor rather than using a rack. For upright rows I use a shoulder-width or wider grip to avoid rotator-cuff injuries.
5. Extras (isolation moves like bicep curls or tricep pressdowns)

To finish this post, let me share this excellent deadlift tutorial video from YouTube. The conventional deadlift is an awesome full-body exercise but you need to do it with good form to avoid injury.