Man, I have not hit any iron for well over 8 months. gonna hit it again this week.

What is the best advise for getting back after such a long lay off?

start light and get use to it? or just try and hit it as hard as i can and start improving from the get go?

A lot depends on how long and how advanced you were before you took time off. I would start fairly slow and work up, if you have a good bit of base and trained for a while before it will come back quickly and yo will be able to pick it after just a few weeks. If you start to push to much to fast you body will react accordingly, you will be real sore and your cns will get beat down pretty fast. Most importantly listen to your body if you feel you need to back off do so.