Thanks again for the kind words. I didn't always train SS style. I did bro-style splits influenced by Flex magazine and the like beginning when I was a junior in high school. I basically focused on chest and arms, with some cursory attention to shoulders. I didn't "do legs" and not much back, either. Really beach muscle focused for a few years. Then I became enlightened by the power of the BOSU and spent some time doing "functional training" and some other stuff for a couple years. When I started lifting in what I consider a more useful manner, in 2008, SS did influence me from the beginning but I didn't adhere to it 100%. I was simultaneously reading and watching stuff from SS, Crossfit, the Olympic Lifting world, and still some carryover/holdover from some of the "Perform Better" world that I had started paying attention to a few years earlier in 2005-2006 (people like Dan John, Eric Cressey, Mike Boyle, etc). So SS was an early influence in terms of real training, and probably always the biggest one, but it wasn't my only one. As an example, I started squatting below parallel in 2008, but all my back squats - 2 to 3 times a week -were high bar squats until 2011. As an aside, this is one reason I often laugh when people say I only advocate for low bar squats for general strength purposes for everyone - even athletes and olympic lifters - because I am simply following Rippetoe and don't know any better. They assume I couldn't possibly be so obtuse and had I only experienced having trained the athletic,
graceful,
superior high bar squat, I would realize how wrong I am. I tried so many things. So many. I did half squats for a couple years. I did high bar squats 2-3x/week for 3+ years, with some front squatting. I pulled deadlifts and cleans with low hips. I didn't try EVERYTHING - who has? - but I have come to agree with Rip's analysis of things not just in theory but also in practice: by being skeptical at first, doing it other ways, trying it this way, thinking about the analysis again, and repeating the process.
I just made this 6.5 year old video public, so anyone who wants to can see me doing some lower hip power cleans. ETA: writing this out inspired a bit of a rant, so including the whole thing here:
200x3 power clean+push jerk
I would say that I spent 2008-2011 experimenting with many different approaches and various styles, several of which I mentioned above. It wasn't till 2011 that I really fully started embracing all of the principles we use here, as both a technique and a programming model. It is to my regret that I didn't do so sooner. Not because there wasn't anything to learn from any of the other sources; there was and still is, in many if not all cases. But what I found and what I still find is that this is the best base material upon which to build, and things I take from other places are nice cherries on top. Little things here and there that are just useful to know in this industry, most often to provide a work-around for someone who can't do X, Y, or Z. But SS principles provide the best base that I've seen.
Regarding your situation, it's somewhat unique in being 51 but having lifted the weights you've lifted. I'll have to take another look at your log to see what kind of program you're doing but off the top of my head and without knowing the particulars, I'd probably set up something like the following, of course subject to adjustment if needed:
Lift 3x/week.
Squat 2x/week, alternating heavier and lighter. The heavier day alternates between volume and intensity, so you have one harder volume workout in week 1, and one harder intensity/heavier workout in week 2. The light day always stays relatively light, but allows you to accumulate some volume that you miss by having a real harder volume workout only once every two weeks.
Deadlift alternate between 2x and 1x weekly, so 3x every two weeks, like the novice schedule. When you DL twice per week, one day is heavier and one is lighter (and the lighter day could be a variation that works well for you: Deficit, Snatch Grip, Paused, etc). The heavier day of that week is still set below max, so it's heavIER, but not all out heavy. Save that for the 1x/week pull the next week. So you're pulling with a decent amount of frequency to stay solid with the technique and also accumulate some volume, but only pulling a really heavy deadlift once every two weeks.
I may be swinging out your way again in the fall. Might even do a camp, if the pieces fall into place just right.