Getting back into a workout routine after a lengthy break can be intimidating at first. Adding another commitment to your already-overburdened schedule, whether it’s the job, family responsibilities, or social obligations, may feel overwhelming, if not outright impossible. Consequently, individuals are more likely to give up on the one activity they may like doing the least – exercising, for example.
The problem may have begun when one hectic week stretched into two, and before you realized it, you hadn’t been to the gym for several months. Whatever the cause, there are strategies for getting yourself out of a fitness rut and establishing a long-term habit.
When you’re getting back into a fitness program after a vacation for several weeks, months, or even years, there are a few things to consider to make the transition easier. Below are some considerations to bear in mind as you begin your fitness journey.
Don’t Change Your Routine At Once
To get back into a fitness regimen, you may be tempted to make changes to your food habits as well. People tend to get obsessed with making a slew of changes all at once. Instead, concentrate on one thing simultaneously, such as attempting to re-establish a physical exercise routine. Individuals should pay attention to how they feel because they are often preoccupied with an incorrect measure of success.
Health experts recommend altering your dietary habits progressively over time, similar to how you would change your exercise routine. This is so you do not get overwhelmed and quit out of frustration. However, if you decide to make some dietary adjustments, start by increasing the amount of water you drink throughout the day to ensure you stay hydrated as a first step. Then introduce more whole foods like leafy greens and berries. An accredited practicing dietitian can help support you with these beneficial and sustainable changes.
Find Motivation
It can be hard to find the motivation to move your body some days. However, once you start, it’s not long before the desire overtakes any lack of interest. In addition, it is not just a matter of finding the drive but rather having the proper sort of motivation to get into shape. Forget about extrinsic motivators such as looking good in your clothing and instead delve a bit deeper.
Too frequently, individuals concentrate on the most common [motivators] in terms of weight loss, such as having a health concern or wanting to lose weight for the sake of someone else. You need to start looking into why this is happening. Why do I want to make this move, you may wonder. What is my compelling reason? It has to be focused on things that are important to you as a person. Once you’ve determined why you want to improve your health, the gym shouldn’t be your first place of call. Your doctor’s office should be the first place you want to visit. You must check that all is well with you first if you are getting back into a workout routine after a lengthy break. Remember that while motivation is good to get us started, it soon starts to fade and is not enough to sustain an activity. Instead, work on forming healthy habits. Daily action triumphs perfection!
Workout Comprehensively
While it’s important to think about your workouts in terms of how far you’ve pushed yourself, it’s also important to think about your cool down, stretching, and healing.
You want to be able to perform while also being pain-free. The importance of mobility and flexibility should be your number one priority unless you are a professional athlete required to go the distance.
It is critical to have a recuperation regimen. Included in this should be regular stretching as well as sufficient cool-down time following exercises. Doctors and experts recommend including frequent massages into your routine, regularly using a foam roller as well as the odd trip to see a physical therapist, to verify that every part of your body is functioning as it should. These strategies will assist you in reducing your chance of injury. This will ensure getting back into a workout routine after a lengthy break continues to happen.
Start With Beginner Level Exercises
Strength training exercises such as squats, lunges, and planks appear in various workouts. However, do too many of these to start with, and you are in for a world of pain. It’s a good idea to check in with yourself to make sure you understand the fundamentals of fitness before getting back into a workout routine after a lengthy break. While these exercises are great to build up your strength, start slowly and work your way up to avoid injuries. Start by strengthening your joint stabilizing muscles. While there are plenty of free workout apps and videos on Youtube, it’s always best to have an individual assessment by a qualified and experienced exercise professional. They can assess your strengths and weakness and develop an exercise plan to progressively challenge and improve your flexibility, balance, strength and endurance.
Remember to spend a few minutes stretching before and after your exercise, no matter which program you select. Stretching is particularly essential when going back into a fitness program after a period of inactivity. Dynamic stretches are an important part of a proper warm-up, and after you are working out, end with some additional cooling stretches.
Be Patient
Please keep in mind that it takes time for your body to establish new training adaptations in response to physical activity. As a result, if you are getting back into a workout routine after a lengthy break, don’t expect to notice significant fitness and strength improvements right away.
The good news is that we tend to recover our fitness rather fast – this may be attributed to a phenomenon known as molecular muscle memory, in which our muscle cells “remember” past exercises. One study found that after 30 to 32 weeks of inactivity (detraining), it only required six weeks of retraining to restore strength to previous levels.
Remember that our capacity to recover strength and aerobic fitness is dependent on a variety of factors, the most significant of which is our age. It was shown that it required three months of retraining to recover upper and lower limb strength in older people (aged 65 years and above) who had undergone 12 months of detraining, while it took more than nine months to regain aerobic fitness.
Genetic variations influence both our ability to build muscle and the rate at which we do so. Because of your Muscle growth (IGF-1) and Muscle hypertrophy (mTOR) characteristics, you may be in a position to gain muscle more quickly than the average person.
Conclusion
Everybody wants to feel and look good, but you need to make time for workouts to sustain these aesthetics. Get motivated by spending time working out your compelling reason for exercising. Getting back into a workout routine after a lengthy break can be daunting, but also worth it to get back into shape. You need to start things slowly and work back up to the baseline where you left. Work on establishing a habit of including activity in your day. Then you can progressively challenge yourself to work harder. With time you will progress and achieve your desired physique if you stick to your routine.