BACK TO THE GRIND

Some of you have been smashing your health and fitness goals over the past couple of months but a systematic review reported decreases in physical activity and increases in sedentary behaviour across all populations over lockdown! Studies have reported that after as little as 2 weeks with no training, muscle mass can begin to decrease. This is followed by strength losses after around 10-12 weeks. Losses have also been reported in flexibility, agility and balance after around 6 week of no training. Furthermore you may see a decline in your endurance and fitness post lockdown.

We will not be where we were pre-lockdown this therefore means we are more susceptible to injury and the muscle soreness post workout will be worse that ever!

How can maximise our chance of success when returning to the gym?

REST IS KING

It’s tempting to want to ‘make the most’ of being back in the gym but be aware your chronic load will be super low due to our last couple of months of little to no training. Even if you have been, for example, running this is a different stimulus to lifting weights. We need make sure we are giving our bodies enough rest and recovery between sessions to adaption and accommodation of the new stresses we will experience when hitting the weights again.

BACK TO BASICS

Be sure to drill technique before heading straight back into the squat rack! As we have mentioned you flexibility and strength may have reduced; this will reduce your ability to hit the positions and perhaps the form you were nailing pre-lockdown. Take is back to basics and rebuild the foundations before adding the weight

TAKE IT SLOW

You will not be quite where you were before lockdown. It is therefore important to start light and steady and gradually increase. Studies recommend around 10% increases per week initially.

RATE OF PERCEIVED EXERTION

Try basing your workout on how you’re feeling rather than numbers and weights initially. Could you have done any more reps on that weight? If so how many? On a scale of 1-10 how close to passing did that circuit make you feel! Base your 10% increases on this to start with.

WARM IT UP

The warm up is going to be particularly important as we head back into the gym to increase your body temperature, prime your muscles and activate your neural pathways. The warm up will be important for reducing injury but is also useful to increase your performance which will mean you will see results and progress more quickly towards your pre-lockdown condition.

IMPACT

If you haven’t been incorporating high impact exercises such as running, jumping and skipping in your lockdown workouts be wary when adding them in now. Try less ‘jumps’ per session or less sessions containing these movement initially. These exercises provide the greatest load through you bones, joints and tendons of all exercises so are the most likely to cause injury while we get used to doing them again.

EAT

Make sure you’re eating enough before and after workout to fuel the session and aid recovery!

Most importantly have fun! We are finally able to get back into the gym but it shouldn’t be a chore - find something you enjoy and stick with it! I’ll see you in there!