Finding your way back into the gym
Gone are the days of saying to ourselves “I think i'll go to the gym after work today”, or “let's grab beers after we train”. Our training has seen its peeks and it has seen its lows through these months. Many of us have probably all followed somewhat of the same pattern of going from bodyweight exercises, to nothing at all, then back to bodyweight, tried some virtual classes, finally the bands came in the mail, work got busy, bands again, finally found some dumbbells, then remembered that you hated working out at home in the first place... Everyone is feeling it. Everyone is anxious to get back into the gym, and have been for a while, which makes easing back into training with a plan the only way you'll make it out alive.
With the reopening of some studio gyms, think of this time as your own grand opening to making gains once more. In these times gyms aren't just a place to workout but rather a chance to leave the house with a purpose! Like the old days! Now with your approach to entering back into a gym one's mind probably goes to the first two things:
“I have lost so much progress, strength, and I look horrible” and
”Let's get back into it right now I wanna feel destroyed on the first day back”.
You likely haven't lost that much muscle mass and the strength you have lost will be back sooner than you think. Odds are people around you haven't noticed a major change either. Remember those old benchmarks you had back in March? Forget about them, you are starting from a deadstop. Work on gaining some momentum in consistency and quality of movements before looking at the weight lifted.
Going into your first few workouts back, remember that this is the start of a marathon, using old benchmarks to gauge yourself through the lift is a bad way to start. During a thorough warm up and tissue prep you are bound to find some trouble spots. Such as:
The front of your hips from minimal movement in 5 months
Side of your glutes from sitting at your WFH rig and
Upper back and shoulders from leaning forward on the 16 Zoom calls a day.
Luckily those are some easy fixes with some trigger point work on a LAX ball and working rotation into that upper back area. Load management in the first weeks back is important because delayed onset soreness, DOMs, will be for real and will really affect your mental ability to be consistent. Your body hasn't been exposed to much intense anaerobic stimulus in a long time and will need longer recovery periods to start off with. Making sure to cover all your bases within your weight training ie. push, pull, lower strength, posterior chain, rotational, etc. If you're up to it maybe even some METCONSs for some energy system development on the side. Shoot for three total body lifts a week with your usual walks around the block between your evening zoom happy hours.
Using low to moderate weight with low to moderate reps will keep a manageable total rep volume, ensuring you won't reach fatigue early because of your lowered working capacity.
If you feel the weight is too light instead of increasing the weight drastically, throw in some tempos such as 3:1:3. Three second lowering phase, explode through the movement for one second, hold for three at the top. This will increase total time under that load and increase neuromuscular efficiency without adding intense stress on the nervous system.
Lastly when re-entering your gym remember two things, feel safe and don't overthink it. The sanitary and sterilization protocols being used ensure ZERO cross use of equipment with social distancing rules enforced. But If you don't feel comfortable entering a gym then don't overthink it, and trust your judgement. You may be ready to get back to gain city but health and others safety must come first. So if you're ready to get that custom birthday suit fitting for all of those spring and summer weddings that got postponed, social distance your glutes down to Perform for Life and check us out.
Mic drop, out ✌🏽
Scott Lawson M.A., CSCS, USAW, XPS
Volume and fatigue https://www.fit-philosophy.com/blogs/fitness-knowledge/understanding-volume-fatigue
Tempos for starting out https://www.thestrengthcave.com/tempo-what-is-it-good-for/