Gyms are starting to open up, and you’re itching to get back in there.
You want to get back to the weights you were lifting before.
You want to hop back on your favorite piece of cardio equipment.
You want to take back your corner of the stretching section.
You want to reclaim your gym, your routine, your fitness, and your health.
I’m all for that, believe me. But we need to handle this blessing with responsibility. If we go into things recklessly, it could end up hurting us.
So, today I just wanted to write you a reminder. I don’t have much to say, other than “take it easy.”
TAKE IT EASY
Yes, muscle memory exists, but your body still takes a while to bounce back. So, you need to make sure you ease back into gym life.
There are a few ways you can ease back when you start lifting again.
The whole point is to reduce your overall intensity, to reduce how hard you push yourself.
You can do this by reducing the amount of weight you lift, sets you complete, or reps you complete.
A good rule of thumb is to reduce all of those by 30-50%. I’ll give you an example. My wife and I went to the gym today, and I know I wanted to go nuts and do everything I’ve been missing out on. Thankfully, I’ve learned my lesson after doing something like that.
When we got to the gym, we settled on a few exercises that we were itching to do since we weren’t able to do them at home with limited equipment. We did deadlifts, overhead press, weighted pull-ups, weighted-dips, and decline sit-ups.
That was it. We just settled on exercises we wanted to do and called it good.
From there, we started by cutting down our sets. Usually, we do 3-4 sets of every exercise, especially when we are following a plan that is designed to get us to a goal. Instead, we did 2 sets of every exercise, not including the warm-up sets.
After that, we reduced our reps. instead of performing 10 reps like we had been used to before the gyms closed, we did 5-8.
Then, we took the weight down. I normally do overhead presses with 135 pounds or more. I did 95.
And, all of that was a bit of a challenge. I knew I could keep going. I knew I could push myself harder. But I also knew that the reduced intensity we applied was still somewhat of a challenge.
So I’m thankful we took it easy. Because we took it easy, our bodies will bounce back, and our strength will return quickly. And yours will, too.
When I was young, and I took a break from the gym for a while, I went all out. I either got hurt or got so sore that I couldn’t workout the rest of the week.
The latter is likely to happen when you push yourself too hard.
You need to remember the long game. You need to remember that you’re working out so you can have a good looking bod AND have a high quality of life. You want a six-pack but you also know you want to move and feel better.
Don’t lose sight of that.
Don’t sacrifice a week or more of workouts for one animal hour in the gym.
Anyway, that’s all I’ve got.
Much love.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. As an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, he is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life.
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