Pangloss
Vital Football Legend
What is the motivation, the amount you can lift, building muscle, toning, fitness? All those!?
I actually don't know and this is the problem. I'm not blessed with great genetics for aesthetics so my physique has never been that great, pretty decent, but more bulky. I am better designed (genetically) for strength. At 20 I was deadlifting around 250kg, squatting around 220kg and benching 175kg.
Funnily enough I completely stopped lifting at around 21 years old and I didn't lift a weight again until I was 27, I'm now 31 and don't have the dedication, especially in diet, to get my lifts back, although they are still fairly decent.
Motivation (or lack thereof) is the big issue at this stage, I have so many hobbies that compete for the time that lifting has taken a back seat in a major way. A home gym might serve to get me going again since I could lift during my lunch hour when I work from home and then I won't feel like I've lost so much time. This could also be a good opportunity to change my physique a become that bit leaner and train in a different way.
It's good point about the heavy stuff having an impact, if I squat too frequently I get tendinitis in both knees and that will only get worse over time. The fact that I will never lift what I did in my pomp also should tell me that there's no point chasing those totals and even if I did get back, it's not that much of an achievement.