Quest for knowledge? May be long winded.

[Nozza]

http://www.nerdfitness.com/community/showthread.php?17545-New-member-with-a-friend-soon-to-follow&p=273152 For any interested, there's the origin story.

If you just wanna skip right to the questions, feel free to scroll down to the TL;DR breaker and read those.

Moving on. After coming across the rebellion a day or so ago, reading blog posts, and then delving into browsing the community I was hooked. I sought out information to see how I was progressing, if I was doing thing correctly, or if I just plain sucked at working out. The answers? Wasn't, Nope, and yes apparently I did.

My workout had no routine, I go with a companion who is trying to bulk up, and I'm trying to slim down. I figured I'd just hang out and spot him as needed for his lifting, I would do moderate weights at a mid-range rep per set, and kill the cardio. Now, I'll admit my initial month or so put me in a place I need to be for getting back into doing physical activity and cardio. I started out dying at 10 minutes on a bike, and now can breeze through 30 minutes without issue. Granted I didn't aimlessly wander between exercise to exercise, but I wasn't putting effort into my lifting and barely broke a sweat.

Getting more to the point, after reading how to work out in a commercial gym, how not to suck at working out, and the various linked blog posts(how to properly do types of excercises, beginner body weight, etc) I took notes like I was in class, watched videos multiple times, and set up a goal workout knowing that a baseline was going to ream me a new on. What I landed on was the following list of excercises for my workout:

Warm up:

Jumping Jacks(20-30)

5 Minutes on recumbent bike.

OR

7 Minutes with weighted jump rope(possibly use for interval training on off days)

Routine: (following at 3 sets of 10-12, 24 sets total)

Squats

Deadlifts

Bench

Shoulder Press

Chest Press

Rows

Inverted Rows

Pushups

Add In after practicing proper form:

Lunges

Dips

Overhead press

Cooldown:

Stretches

5 minutes of slow biking(walking pace)

Unable to do without assist:

Pull/Chin ups(the gym has an assist machine)

I started with the warm up and the routine today, and will follow up with my second go round on Monday.

TL;DR

Disclaimer: Though I've ripped through multiple articles and started reworking multiple things if I ask a repeat question I do apologize(I've yet to make it through all the blog posts or the Ask a question thread).

1. During the routine, I noticed some of the tail tucking on the squats. I was alone today(quite literally, the only others in the gym were on the crossfit side), and had no one to comment on my form. I've watched the videos and have come to the conclusion the only way to retrain this muscle memory is to practice body weight squats and loosen my hips from what they're used to?

2. During the deadlifts, it seemed regardless of weight, or speed, my form was incorrect. I started to feel tightness in the small of my back and decided to stop them early. I know I'm supposed to pull my shoulders back and push my hips forward, but it seems all I'm doing is still lifting with my back. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to break this habit?

3. I'm not sure if my routine is too much or not, I am to start my quest for being a ranger very soon, and complete one of my smaller life goals within a year(Spartan Race), I'm not overloading myself with weight in the routine and doing what I know I can handle and only need ask for a spot on the last set. But does anyone have any recommendation on if I'm doing a needless exercise(as in overlapping areas) or is that ok? I'll admit after today I left that gym pouring sweat, and yes it kicked my ass, but I've not felt that good in years, nor ever that good after my workout.

Again, sorry for the extremely huge post, as stated, I'm new here and I'm just trying to find my niche and make sure I've got the knowledge I need to progress forward safely and smartly.