Why it's best to ease back into the gym...
I’m sure many of you are as excited as we are that gyms are able to open in Switzerland again this week - and have also opened again recently in countries such as the UK as well! The temptation for many of you will be to try and make up for ‘lost time’ after a few months away, but let me explain why that is not a good idea, and why it’s not necessary either…
If you haven’t been training in a gym setting for several months, the chances are you’ve had very limited access to weights and resistance training equipment. Hopefully you will have maintained a consistent routine of exercise during this time, but 1) some of you wont have and 2) you likely will have been training in a very different style compared to when you are able to go to the gym. Either way, you will have ‘de-trained’ to a certain degree - meaning that your body is no longer used to the stressed and demands of lifting weights and training in a gym environment.
I get that it will be frustrating to go back to the gym after several months off - you will feel like you have regressed, and will feel less fit and less strong than you were previously. You will want to get back to where you were previously, and do so as quickly as possible. However, trying to rush the process won’t speed up your progress - if anything it could slow it down. And don’t worry, getting back to your previous levels won’t take as long as it did the first time around - with muscle memory, higher technical ability and a higher starting level (I promise you won’t have regressed entirely in this time), you will have a far shorter way to go.
However, the plus side of the layoff, and having been slightly detrained, is that you will see progress very easily and quickly. You don’t need to push hard in order to improve, nor do you need to work yourself to failure or exhaustion. Going through some straightforward sessions, working through all key movement patterns and compound exercises at low intensities, will lead to progress and improvement. This is good news, because it means that for your first couple of weeks back in the gym you can just focus on doing exercises that feel good and enjoy. You will feel it anyway (particularly after the first session back), but you will also still get positive results.
Finally, as I just mentioned, you will feel the effects of working out regardless of how hard you push. After any kind of layoff from exercise, you will feel muscle soreness when you go back to it. When starting again, the aim should be to minimise these feelings, not maximise them. If you go in, do too much and push too hard, you will be so sore that you won’t make it back to the gym for several days - which will actually set you back in the short term. Whereas, if you just go through an ‘easier’ session, you won’t feel so sore and will be able to get more sessions in over the short term. As you know, progress comes from consistency and repetition - so the more sessions you are able to complete, the more progress you will make in that period.
It’s great that we can get back to training in gym environments, but to start with at least, just enjoy being back! You will progress, you will improve - but just focus on doing things that make you want to go back to the gym, not punishing yourself for being away for so long!
