Lifting Heavy - changed it up... Is it good enough?

I would strongly recommend that you purchase personal training sessions, even just one a week for 6 weeks. Ask questions; work on each lift/strength training exercise. Work with the trainer to master your form. Without form you are wasting your time and asking for injury. Ask your trainer what he/she recommends you work on throughout the week & how you should be managing your macronutrients.

For a beginner, I wouldn't bother doing bicep or tricep exercises. If you're doing the other compound lifts, they are somewhat redundant. Maybe later you can add them to your routine, but don't worry about them now. Save yourself a few minutes in the gym!

Switch your pushups to a bench press. You can start with dumbbells, but you'll need to use a barbell eventually.

Squats are the most important lift you can do. If you have access to a squat rack, I'd do barbell squats instead of leg extensions. Body weight squats are fine, but you'll make a lot more strength progress doing barbell squats.

Good form is important when the weights get heavy. Have someone watch you do the heavy lifts to make sure you're doing them right.

Good job getting started! Get strong, and be careful!

Skip the biceps and triceps for now, focus on the compounds, and look up Rippetoe teaching videos on the big 4's (deadlift, squat, OHP and bench) on Youtube to make sure your form is solid. There's a Youtube video by Pendlay on Pendlay rows if you care to look. Mehdi's videos are pretty decent but he's no Rippetoe of course.

However, if your gym has a rowing machine, maybe try that over Pendlays (for the sake of your lower back mostly as bent-over barbell rows can be hard on the lower back, especially if that's a trouble area for you). Or do pull-ups instead.

Stay with the lower weights until your form is good, then start adding weights and keep going up every week by about 5-10 pounds on the lower body lifts and about 2.5-5 pounds (if there's fractional weights available) on the upper body lifts.

If your gym has a squat rack, skip the leg extensions and do squats instead. Start at 45 lbs (lower if you need to) and work your way up from there. Think compound, and don't waste your time and energy on isolation lifts. Use dumbbells if there is no squat rack. Squats are lot more beneficial than leg extensions, and you'll get a lot more bang for your buck. And at that point don't worry about the squat challenge (unless you want do, of course ... I like mixing things up and warm up with overhead squats, but to each their own).

There's also no need to go beyond 5x5 on any of the lifts, so the 2x3 could have been easily skipped. I never do more than 5x5 for any of them, but 3x5 at a minimum with at least 1x5 at my highest weight for the day/week (I do a staggered 5x5 rather than an across-the-board one).

You're not doing Stronglifts but that's okay because 5x5 is a traditional format that will take you a long way as long as you progressively add weight to the bar.

Just my 2 cents for what those are worth to you.

I guess they only back exercise im doing is the bar rows. I do have a rower on my universal gym set though. And when Im done of the 30 day squat challenge, I am going to start doing front barbell squats at 50lbs. I want nice arms, thats why ive been doing the tris and bis - why shouldn't i be doing them yet?

Because deadlifts, bench presses and overhead presses work your biceps/triceps already, and quite thoroughly so.

Doing curls and triceps extension isn't wrong or anything, just don't let them hurt your progress with the main lifts. Make the big compounds your priority/focus and treat the other stuff as optional. Except for rows/pulls which in the scheme of things should have a higher priority than any isolation moves, so skip the bi/tri work before you skip those.

I can't tell for sure, but you might be able to do a bench press type exercise with your universal gym. Can you sit on the seat and push those U-shaped arms forward away from your chest? If you can, that'll work as a bench press alternative.

Can I do bench press right on the floor? I don't have a weight bench.

no.

I tend to think in terms of large muscle groups and build my program from there. Legs, Chest, Back, Arms and Abs.

Research shows that when you think and concentrate on the muscle expanding and contracting during the exercise the overall progress is best.

If you check around the web most beginning lifters programs recommend a 3 day per week full body work out as you have. The theory is to introduce the full body and CNS (central nervous system) to the stress so it can grow with the muscles as well.

Bent over rows and dead lifts have issues with form that can put far too much stress on the back if done wrong. If your budget is tight try bodybuilding.com for technique, exercise and even programs is good but vast. http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/finder/lookup/

For more technique(dead lift especially) go to youtube. You'll find tons of info there. Don't just watch the first one you see and follow.

Not sure where you get 5x5. 3x8/12 is more beginner focused. 5x5 is more High Intensity Training.

Oh ya, and Im doing the 30 day Squat Challenge with no weights.

ooh whats that?