1. Approach your restart as if you are returning from an injury or surgery.
Exercise is oftentimes very strenuous and demanding not only on your heart and lungs, but also on your muscles, joints and tendons. We can easily forget that these connective tissues don’t remain durable and oftentimes weaken and tighten with living a sedentary lifestyle. This means that if you are expecting to do what you were prior to being sedentary, then you are at an increased risk for injury. For example, if you were doing box jumps, sprinting, med ball slams all prior to your extended period of being sedentary for 6-12 months, then you can’t expect to do that once you go back. You must rebuild your “tissue tolerance.” This is your tendons, joints, muscles and fascia’s ability to absorb and produce heavy forces and perform dynamic, explosive activities. Your muscular strength may be there, due to your nervous system producing the force, but the tissues that are supporting the heavy weight no longer have the same resiliency as they did before. The best bet is to start with lighter weight or assisted bodyweight, higher reps of 12-15 and build up your work capacity for 3-6 weeks. Then, gradually reintroduce heavier loads, more dynamic movements and lower reps.
2 . Aim to meet the American College of Sports Medicine and CDC’s exercise recommendations.
Oftentimes we set our own expectations and goals that are really created ourselves, or possibly from what we hear from others, who may have taken a similar journey, or are already in amazing shape. Not that you should disregard in-person advice, but sometimes that advice can give us unreal expectations and set us up for injury or failure. Instead, aim for meeting the standards set by the ACSM and CDC. These guidelines call for moderate intensity aerobic activity for a minimum of 30 minutes, 5 days per week or for vigorous intensity aerobic activity for a minimum of 20 minutes, 3 days per week. Their guidelines also call for you to perform activities that maintain or increase muscular strength and endurance at least 2 days per week.
3. Try to be as consistent as possible.
If you are at the very least, trying to get back to your conditioning and strength before your setback, consistency is going to be the main target. You can have the perfect workout program, all of the right nutrition habits, but if you show up all 5 days one week, then 2 the next, then take a week off for vacation and travel, then return and show up 2 days for week 4….then you can’t expect to see many changes. This is why not setting your goals too high, creating unrealistic expectations, can help you to create consistency.
Looking for more accountability and support as you restart your fitness journey? No worries - Texins has your back! Please contact Coach Gavin for a one-on-one fitness consultation. We want to assist you in becoming unstoppable in the pursuit of your fitness goals and motivate you throughout the journey.