6 Tips To Get Back Into Training After A Break
Breaks from exercise happen for us all. Whether injury, illness, life events or simply a shift in focus, lots can happen to make getting training in more difficult. Lockdown, for many of us, has meant limited equipment and restrictions, either making fitness incredibly difficult or shifting our priorities away from exercise.
Lots of us may have chosen to take the last few months as a break, and that’s okay, let me repeat, that is more than okay! So much more than okay. Covid-19 was (and still is) a global pandemic. The sort that movies are made about. Perhaps not quite on the scale of ‘I Am Legend’, but still meteoric in size and effect. And we never saw Will Smith beating himself up about not getting his workout in. So, firstly, give yourself a break, and let’s look ahead to where to go now.
So, how can you get back to your pre-lockdown training volume and strength, whilst avoiding injury or mishaps? Read on for our guide.
1. Start Slow
That’s right...you cannot rush this. Don’t book into the gym every day, put 100% effort into every session, RX every workout and aim to be back up to full fitness within a week. It doesn’t work like that. The human body is iron strong but it also requires balance, and it needs to adapt, otherwise you are at risk of injury.
Perhaps start with a pipe or an empty bar. Focus on form and technique. Stretch. Scale the reps. Muscle memory will mean that movement patterns will come back relatively quickly, and that is where the good stuff lies. Move well, start slow, and make sure you leave enough time between sessions for your body to adapt. Those last few reps? Now is not the time...leave them in the tank and your body and muscles will thank you later.
2. Prioritise Rest and Recovery
When you train, it places stress on your central nervous system. The human body recognises this physical stress as just that...stress. It cannot differentiate the source of this stress, but it identifies it as an attack on the body, placing your body into repair & survival mode. This reaction is even more pronounced when we return to exercise after a break.
Let’s take a look at how strength training actually works. Muscle hypertrophy occurs when the fibres of the muscles sustain damage or injury. The body repairs damaged fibres by fusing them, which increases the mass and size of the muscles. Now putting your body through this is all part of training, but muscle repair, growth and adaptation happens when we are at rest. NOT when we are in the gym.
Our top recovery tips
Aim to get 7-8 hours sleep every night.
Eat whole, healthy, nutritious foods, and make sure you take in some carbs and protein before and shortly after training (your muscles need it!).
Make sure your diet includes oily fish, or Omega3Zone High Strength Fish Oil. This will reduce unnecessary inflammation, stimulate your growth hormones to repair muscles and help to strengthen bones and joints.
Take an anabolic amino supplement during and after training - check out PerfectAminoXP, currently on offer on our website. This will directly help muscles to repair and grow by improving protein uptake.
Make sure you take 1-3 ‘active recovery’ or full rest days each week. Trust us, your body needs it and will progress faster if you give it a chance to recover.
Consider taking a CBD supplement such as our ridiculously effective CBD++ on rest days or to aid sleeping recovery. This will improve the QUALITY of the sleep you do get, help to ease stress (including stress from training), and reduce inflammation and muscle soreness.
3. Listen to your Body
More and more wearables, devices and apps have the ability to tell us what state we are in physically. Biostrap (available from Hence) is one leader in this category, and rightly so. It tells us the things we may not be able to judge from feel alone. H.R.V, sleep quality, resting heart rate...these are all invaluable measures but should be used alongside good, old fashioned, listening to your body. We consulted Dr Matthew Milner on this point and he offered,
“Your body is uniquely in tune with its recovery status. It doesn’t need bluetooth devices to state the obvious”
- Dr Matthew Milner
If you have a little muscle soreness but feel generally okay, absolutely go and train (but make sure you warm up well). But, if you feel run down, painful, disconnected, drained, or have developed cold sores or ulcers...today is the day to rest to progress. Maybe do some mobility or stretching, or go for a walk, but leave the heavy lifting or H.I.I.T for another day. After a break from exercise, our ligaments, tendons and muscles may be less adapted and therefore at greater risk of injury so listen to those niggles!
4. Be Accountable to Someone Else
A good coach cannot be overestimated! Whether this is the coach at your local box, a personal trainer or someone who programs for you, find a good one. Not only will they be able to guide you in ensuring you take things at the correct pace, knowing someone else cares can also keep you turning up even when things get tough!
5. Set a Smart Goal
Long-term goals are great, but, day to day they are not motivational. “In a year's time I want to clean 30KG more than I currently can” or “I want to reduce my 5KM time by 10 minutes” will not keep you turning up and putting in the work day to day. It’s okay to have long-term goals but they are secondary. To begin with, choose 2-3 short-term goals perhaps aiming to get certain areas back to where you were pre-lockdown. Then, as you improve, increase them a little but not too much. As human beings we tend to be motivated by gratification over a short time period, so use it to your advantage.
6. Fuel Your Progress
Whatever your diet was like during lockdown, getting back to training is the time to focus on making sure you are giving your body everything it needs (not restricting!). Lean protein, healthy fats, and good sources of carbohydrate are vital to ensure your body can recover & progress. As well as this, get your fibre, fruits and veggies in. Treats are absolutely okay in moderation, but make sure they’re supported by whole foods.
“Focus on your micros and your macros will come in just right.”
- Dr Matthew Milner
If you decide to give yourself an extra boost with supplements, make sure they are high quality as the market is flooded with ineffective offerings that promise the world but deliver nothing due to poor ingredients and dosage! Hence Greens Stack is the most powerful health-lead greens blend on the UK market for the mind, body and recovery. It contains no fillers, no shortcuts, and the ingredients are specifically chosen with athletes in mind to promote performance and recovery. So, if you haven’t tried our Greens Stack yet, give it a go and you’ll feel the difference!
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