What a year for me in the gym. At the start of the year I hit Personal Bests on all of my lifts (modest weights for all but was still very happy).
Then, as is probably a common theme everywhere, my gym closed and the weakening began.
Sure I tried to stay fit, started running a bit again, bag work, yoga and using whatever was in my house for some resistance training (bodyweight, cinderblocks, bottles of water etc) and that was fine for a while but it started to get old fast.

I simply enjoyed the weight room the most and was losing motivation at having to "make do".
So I bit the bullet and fitted out the garage with a bench, squat rack, barbell and a selection of plates to go along with it.

Since it had been months since I was last at it I needed to;

1. Build strength back up,

2. Practice all of those movements again in terms of body mechanics and nervous system adaption

3. Not injure myself in the process (IMPORTANT)

So it was back to basics (and very light weights).

This post is somewhat of a summary of my experience and a starting point for people getting into weight training/ returning to it (check with your Dr. first that you can do this especially if you have any health problems)

I had the an advantage with being so weak and having been much stronger before in the fact that more or less anything I did (sensibly) would produce some results but I wanted to make the most of my time.
My body would "remember" movements faster rather than having to learn them all over again and it is easier to gain strength back than gain it in the first place.
I began planning a 4 day per week program that was quite simple and built around the standard for any good weight training based program.
It included; Vertical push (Overhead Press), Vertical Pull (Pullups and Chinups) Horizontal Push (Bench Press) Horizontal Pull (Barbell Row) and also my two favorites, the Barbell Squat and Deadlift.

Working these into any program is important (injuries or personal limits aside and there are more options for each type of movement than what I chose. These are simply my favorites, most bang for my buck and simplest in terms of the equipment I now had.
Other options can include (Even bodyweight exercises)

Vertical Push: Strongman press, Dumbbell press, Seated Dumbbell/Barbell press, Kettlebell presses

Vertical Pull: (Depending on equipment) Pullup. Chinup (any safe variation of grip/grip width), Cable lat pulldowns

Horizontal Push: Push Ups, Bench Press, Incline Press, and any variation of grip widths

Horizontal Pull, Dumbbell or Barbell rows, Australian Pullups (These are also good to progress if you can't do regular pullups yet).

As a beginner or returning to exercise it is very easy to make progress on a week per week basis. This is known as Linear Progression whereby one can make consistent gains either in weight on the bar or reps on a week per week or session per session basis as demonstrated below in Figure 1.

Figure 1: A graph demonstrating a Linear Progression.

My Workouts were basically as follows (Shown as Reps x Sets)
Monday:
Barbell Squat 5 x 3
Romanian Deadlift 8 x 3
Pull ups 6-8 x 3
Barbell Row 8 x 3

Tuesday:
Bench press 5 x 3
Overhead Press 6-8 x 3
Close Grip Bench Press 8-10 x 3

Thursday:
Barbell Squat 5 x 3
Deadlift 6 x 2
Chin-ups 6-8 x 3
Barbell Row 8 x 3

Friday:
Bench Press 5 x 3
Overhead Press 6-8 x 3
Parallel Bar Dips 8-10 x 3
Triceps Pushdowns with a resistance band 8-12 x 3

Quite Simple, no workout took too long and I was seeing nice workout to workout progress, I was adding 2.5kg nearly each workout to Squat, Bench and 5kg to Deadlift.
I started very light Empty bar = 15kg for all except Deadlift was 35kg (Which was the bar and 2 x 10kg plates)

Once it started becoming harder to make these jumps I changed things around a bit. I made the Squats and Bench in the 6-8 rep range.
I would start a weight at 6 reps and if by the next session I could do 8 I would increase the weight. This is not Linear progression however and eventually this became taxing.
Just before switching I had added 2 sets of curls on Mondays and Thursdays at the end and 3 sets or lateral raises on Tuesday and Thursday but these are not important for strength progression so early on.

Overall I added 60kg onto my Squat six reps between the end of August and the end of November, 50kg for bench and 65kg for my deadlift as well as working back up to weighted Pullups and Chinups. I also gained 4.5kg body weight in the same time period.

I have just started the program I was trying before lockdown started here (Wendler's 5/3/1 BBB) which isn't quite for beginners but I enjoyed the progression system before and how short each workout was so I am back to that. I will try to keep a note of progress on this but really enjoyed it before.
Unfortunately I don't have the space overhead for any Oly lifting so Clean and Jerk and Snatch are out for now (maybe outdoors in the summer) but I am happy with what I have for now.

If anyone is thinking of just getting started there are really good resources for all of this kind of stuff online or in books
- For Beginners the Book "Starting Strength, Basic Barbell Training" by Mark Rippetoe is very good for a simple Linear Progression based program with (often agonizingly thorough) detail on correct form and safety.

- https://www.t-nation.com/ often have very good articles to be found on a variety of training styles from different authors

- https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/gainit/ have good advice sometimes if questions are asked and they often have Stickies of basic programs etc for beginners too. Or if you can speak the language of Brodin, The Allspotter who racks us not weights we can not lift you may enjoy the Swoley Path as shown by https://www.reddit.com/r/swoleacceptance/ (Mostly for fun but there is some good advice on there too).

- https://www.nerdfitness.com/ Have a good variety of programs and tips for weight based or bodyweight exercises (and usually a good sense of humor too)

Well that is is for me rambling. If this post inspires anyone to get to it or get back to it I'll be very happy.
Any insights, comments/ questions or fitness stories just drop them below. I'm far from an expert but can hopefully point you in the right direction.