What did you wish you knew back when you first started lifting?

The ligaments in your joints take longer to adapt than your muscles do when increasing weights from one week to the next. Just because your muscles can handle it, give it another couple weeks for your joints to reach that same level before going up in weight.

Shoulders are used in more exercises than you realize. Give enough time for them to recover, rather than programming in consecutive days (such as chest-back-shoulders-chest).

That it wouldn't change my body shape as much as all the instagrammers/ fitness program seller's claimed it would. I still love lifting, but it didn't turn me into some hourglass goddess with a big butt and tiny waist. I'm just a slightly stronger version of the same body. And I'm happy with that.

This is a great topic. I am just about to turn 50. I first went into a gym when I was 16 but just messed about until I found out about heavy lifting when I was abut 38/39. Have been very inconsistent because of work, injuries and so on. Just in the last few months I have managed to figure a few things out and I feel like I am almost now starting for the first time. And I think it boils down to three things.

1) "You don't have a bad back, you have weak abs"

My first 10 or so years lifting were plagued with a serious back issue. I was sort of able to work around it, but recently I looked into videos about the McGill Big Three and about how to breath and brace properly. My back has been doing dramatically better since then- although it is still far from normal.

2) Track your macros

Just started doing in the last four months. Before when I was lifting I would try to eat a high protein diet with a lot of vegetables, and then try to fine-tune the amount of carbs depending on whether I was trying to lose or maintain weight. Now I have been tracking macros for a while I know for a fact that I have never eaten enough protein, not even close. And when I was wanting to lose weight a bit I was doing it in a really sub-optimal way. Since I have been tracking the results have been incredible, and I am just at the beginning.

3) If you want to grow your muscle, you need to take that part of your training more seriously, learn about it and apply yourself

I have always been mainly interested in strength training, but like everyone else like the idea of looking good with my shirt off. So I have generally thrown in a bit of hypertrophy/bodybuilding stuff. I guess partly because I don't get the appeal of pro bodybuilding (I don't like the aesthetic and I find the idea of doing competitions where you are purely judged on appearance) I never really looked into how to do that stuff or took it seriously. So I would just do a few sets of curls or tricep extensions without much focus on technique, without tracking properly (and thus not really going for progressive overload) and without learning much about form.

This time round I adopted the rule that I track and aim for progressive overload on pretty much every single exercise I do (I have always tracked strength stuff, just not accessory stuff). I also watched a few Renaissance Periodization videos and found out a bit more abut technique. Started doing the things they advocate for every movement- controlled eccentric, full ROM, try to initiate the movement with the prime mover in a fully stretched position. And also just embracing the philosophy that while with strength work you are using technique to move more weight safely, with hypertrophy stuff you are using technique so that you can use less weight and still have hard sets. Along with tracking my macros, this has made a really noticeable difference, and this is only about four months in.