Yeah, my anecdata matches yours. I didn't start lifting until I read all the nerdy rave reviews of Starting Strength on this very website (circa 2012 maybe), an

Yeah, my anecdata matches yours. I didn't start lifting until I read all the nerdy rave reviews of Starting Strength on this very website (circa 2012 maybe), and bought the book and tried it. I was already in my late 30s, but in about a year, I doubled my strength on barbell squat, bench press, and deadlift. (Almost any beginner/novice can do this, BTW!) But, it was a slog. I failed a lot, often repeatedly, before I could complete all my sets and advance to a higher weight. So the progression was slow. Then we had a second kid and that was that — no time for lifting for a while! Like almost 2 years. And I did revert to a weaker version of myself (still 50% stronger than I was originally, though). But when I finally got back to it, I got back to 90% of my peak in maybe 6-8 weeks. That same story repeated after we had a third kid.