Bucky, that's wonderful! Your progress, I mean. Not your uncle obviously. I'm sorry about that.
But it is wonderful how far you've come and especially that you have made it last and that you did it without some crazy crash fasting diet. That's all great.
I've hesitated to add to what LM has said because the most important thing is to get started and he's already given you a lot to digest.
I think perhaps the most crucial parts are:
1. Get started
2. Don't get hurt
3. Keep going
What actual exercises you do or what equipment you own is secondary, especially since you're starting fresh. Almost anything you do at this point will result in gains.
That said, another "rule" I have along those lines is "bias for fun." Not everyone wants to lift steel or run. For example:
I'll stop your right there Ergo, I'm not a runner I hold my hand up high and wear that badge with pride
The thing you like is the thing you will do. That will make it so much easier to be consistent.
gear
I'm going to add a couple things to what LM suggested, but hopefully this does not add complexity or friction to getting going.
1. Something to hang from. If you have something sturdy to grab that you can reach with your feet still on the ground, great. If not, a chinup bar is a worthwhile investment (don't worry - I'm not suggesting you do chinups). My co-workers bought me this for my office door:
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https://amzn.to/46WJ2bg2.
Maybe a set of bands. I personally have never been able to get into band work, but plenty of people far stronger than me love them. Theresa just ordered these:
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https://amzn.to/3TwoG5zBeyond that, get creative.
My first "gyms" at home and at work consisted of
- stones I collected ranging from 10 to 200 pounds
- jugs with handles (gallon milk jugs, detergent jugs). A gallon jug is about 8 pounds and works almost as well as a dumbbell.
- various household implements of destruction: sledge hammer, splitting maul, 20-pound pry bar, wheelbarrow loaded with aforesaid rocks, old piece of pipe and so on.
- an old backpack I could load up with jugs of water
- the stairs to my house and a stump in the woods at work
The options are endless.
I feel like I left a bunch of stuff out.... Higher reps are fine
That was the main thing that I was going to add and I think it's worth dwelling on a bit more.
If you start reading about strength training, you will likely find advice to lift heavy weights that you can only lift 3-5 times before failure. That's great advice... if you are young and have a lot of experience.
If you are older or a beginner or in your case both, that is a recipe for injury, which violates principles 2 and 3 above. If you get hurt, you can't keep going.
The flip side to that, is that if you are working with loads that are too light, you won't really be building strength. Littleman said you could go up to 30 reps. I would call that an upper limit, but I think he's right that that will work for you initially since you do not currently have a strength training habit.
At the beginning, it is best to err on the side of going too light rather than too heavy. Add weight gradually. Ideally, you would like to get to the point where you are failing at somewhere around 12 reps. That's heavy enough to make good gains and light enough to still be reasonably safe.
Finally, people will often say that you have to work to failure.
[Aside: funny story that only you can appreciate since you're the only one here who has spent much time with Theresa... Before we were even dating, we went to the gym together and started with a warmup on the bench press. I did easy reps to warm up and Theresa, aghast, said: "Hey! You didn't work to failure!" I already knew I liked her, but after that... ;-) ]
Anyway, you do NOT have to work to failure. In fact, I would say as you're starting, that you should stop well short of failure. If you work to failure, you will likely end up sore and if you're super sore, it will violate principles 1 and 3, maybe 2 if you get really sore. Better to keep it easy and keep it frequent and build slowly.
Physiologist Andy Galpin says that while working to failure is tremendously helpful for hypertrophy, for building strength, getting within a rep or two is fine. So if you can do 15 and you stop at 13 or even 12, that's fine. If you can do 25 and stop at 13, you will not make much progress.
Which brings me to...
I think my triceps and biceps get well worked, playing my viola. :-)
They might get tired, but you're building endurance more than strength. Ideally, your strength program will challenge the muscles in a very different way - more intensity, but less volume.
Whew! Like Littleman said, that's already really long and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface. I'll throw out my current, albeit ever-changing list of "rules" that increasingly guide my approach.
1. Bias for joy/fun
2. Something is better than nothing
3. Start where you are
4. Goals determine strategy and strategy determines tactics.