Ah nice one! Good thread

I've been lifting weights on and off, to various degrees of commitment since I was about 15 so been doing it a long time. I was a gym goer but invested in a Mirafit home gym set up this year and it's the best thing I've done for my weigh training. It's now in the garage.

My biggest problem over this time was consistency. I'd be great for 3/4 weeks, going to the gym 3 or 4 times and really getting in to it then something would happen and I would fall out of habit for a week or 2 and find it so hard to go back to it.

My tips would be:

Stay consistent - its easy to make excuses sometimes but often the best sessions are the ones you feel worse about doing.

Record what you're doing - makes it easy to see progress and know the areas you need to improve on. Even the little things like weight increments. For example say you're doing tricep push downs and you get 12 reps instead of the 10 you were planning on, record it and increase the weight until 10 is as many as you can do.

Working as close to failure as you can go. Theres a term called "Reps in Reserve", which is how many you've got left in the tank after you finish the set, try to get to 1 or 2 RIR on your sets.

Spotting for lifts like a bench press are great, gives you more confidence to try heavier weights or go for more reps - it helps you get closer to failure.

If you're bench pressing alone don't put collars on the bar to stop the weights from sliding off - I've been stuck under bars a few times and it can be very awkward! You can slide the weights off the bar if you get stuck and there's no one around to help.

For your chest using dumbbells is really good for flat or incline bench pressing, especially if you don't have someone to spot for you - it's much safer.

Don't be afraid of the small plates. They are there to be used! If you need 500gm plates to progress then use them.

Theres plenty more to focus on, and loads of really good stuff on youtube for tips and tricks - Renaissance Periodization is one of my favourites but I'd recommend looking at Sean Nalewanyj first.