My return to weight training has been going for a little over a year now.
Happy with results thus far.
My father got back into pretty good shape several times after age 40.
He said it takes about 2 years when you're older, and pushing too hard to get it back faster than that just results in injury or burnout.
Tried substituting heavy snatch-grip high pulls off the blocks (using straps) in place of power snatches last August/September.
Along with the heavy flat bench, it turned out to be too much.
Was hitting all my lifts that cycle through the first month.
Had a workout near the end programmed for 9 singles at 285lbs on bench, and could only get the first 3.
The burnout was obvious.
Took a month off from the gym, and reassessed goals.
Decided to look for weaknesses and found them in leg strength, core strength and mobility.
Got a proper pair of weighlifting shoes and addressed them by working on ATG high-bar squats and standing strict barbell presses.
Had to do all sorts of mobility work, especially with the ankles, and started going to a massage therapist regularly.
Squatted (form work, not much weight) 4-6 days per week most weeks from some time in late November until mid February.
Strict presses came along well.
Used the programming described in an earlier post, hit 175lbs easily on New Year's Eve (was pretty happy with that, as it was within a few pounds of my body weight).
Did one more training cycle after that with a mix of strict presses and later push presses for the heavier loading.
Hit 205lbs on push press in mid February.
With the newly won mobility, exploring the benefits of the Olympic lifts had some appeal.
Checked my ratios (power snatch/full snatch/squat/press) and made a plan.
Squat strength was way behind explosive power and pressing strength, and technique was seriously lacking.
On the good side, that explosive power normally falls behind strength as you age, so it's not a bad place to be.
Programming now is similar to the previous method, but 3 exercises are done in one workout now.
Programming is based on full snatch, adding clean and push press at 125% of the workout's snatch weight and squats at 150% of snatch weight.
Normally go to the gym 3 times per week now (not counting scheduled rest weeks).
Been making sure to get the workouts done in under 60 minutes, including warmup.
Very happy with current training results.
Consistently weighing about 180lbs (at a little under 6'2" barefoot).
Not sure about body fat %, but waist is small.
All of my joints joints have plenty of mobility and never suffer any aches/pains, other than thumbs (still conditioning to hook grip).
Never feel fatigued or challenged physically at my manual labor job.
Have plenty of strength to do pretty much anything I want outside the weight room.
Usually get marvelous sleep.
On the down side, it's actually difficult to eat enough calories to maintain or gain weight (should still be slowly gaining, given the stage of training).
The good side, beer consumption is only limited by alcohol processing abilities.
Two things learned in the past 6 months:
Mental intensity -relax, save the "psycho strength" for the last few heavy workouts of a training cycle.
Food -supporting this training takes calories. Lots of calories.
Probably have another 9-10 months before being fully "in shape".
Definitely going to keep this as a lifelong habit.