With
the ease of the stage 3 Government enforced restrictions now resuming to stage
2, some small gym facilities have been given the green light to reopen. If you
find yourself returning back to the gym this week, I feel as though there are a
few key things which need to be touched upon in order to make the rest of your
week a much smoother experience. Granted, there will be soreness potentially
like never before, but I feel it is very important to minimise your risk and
within this blog I am going to let you know how to do so.
Perform the necessary warm up routine:
It’s a well known saying that poor preparation leads to poor performance, but
with an 8 week hiatus from the gym, this cannot be said enough. I encourage you
to do more mobility and release work than you may have ever done before, in
order to prepare your body as best as possible. This will decrease your risk of
injury and also give you an understanding of where you are at. There could be
stiffness and movement restrictions that were not there before, so addressing
this is paramount. Skipping this step and then hurting your back in the squat
rack is really not going to be a good outcome. I’d encourage you to do a
movement screening with your coach prior to jumping straight into things. This
will give you and those around you a good understanding of where you are at
before you get lifting.
Load and volume management:
It really should go without saying, but understanding that you have been away from
the barbells for 8 weeks is going to have left a significant hole in your
previous lifting achievements. Consider load management as harm minimisation.
By not going as heavy and also performing less reps than normal, you can allow
your body to adapt to this new found stimulus in the same way you would if you
were learning a new exercise. The ability of the body to recover between sets
and also between training days has been significantly diminished so you need to
remember that before you stack the plates back on. Obviously injury is a risk,
but so is not being able to recover from your initial sessions during the week
and potentially doing less throughout the week than you’d like. Lowering your
expectations and being kind to yourself throughout your transition back to the
gym is going to be the key.
Be kind to yourself:
Whilst everyone is going to have had differing isolation experiences, one thing
is for certain; we are different people than we were 8 weeks ago. A lot of
people took to building garage gyms whilst others settled for light dumbbell and
band workouts. Whatever you did, it wasn’t what you were doing 8 weeks ago and
that has now resulted in a different person than you were back then. You may
have gained or lost weight, gained or lost mobility but it will be highly
unlikely that you haven’t lost strength. We all lost strength and we lost our
routines that we took for granted. With the return to a new normal, it is
important to take the small wins along the way and allow your mind frame to
remain positive. Reach out to your gym buddies and coaches and ensure you are
all in this together.
Prioritise recovery:
With an increase in output, there needs to be an increase in recovery and this
comes in the form of active and passive modalities. Firstly, an active recovery
session may now take the place of one of your scheduled strength sessions as
you battle the new found soreness of returning to the gym. Picking up a solid
mobility or flow style session every few days is going to enable you to come
back even stronger than before. This is also a great way to manage your loading
and volume per week as you are now stretching / rolling / getting a massage
instead of doing that 4th or 5th session for the week.
This doesn’t have to last forever, but I’d suggest that for the first 4 weeks
of training, you consider it. Your passive recovery strategies are going to be
your nutrition, hydration and sleep. These factors all need to be a huge
priority if you want to get back into shape any time soon. Just like with any
training program, these factors matter; but they do so now more than ever. Speaking
with your coach about how to actually get through your first week of training would
be very advisable.
Just remember, over time, you will make back your lost progress and then
surpass your previous self. You have never rested this long and had this much
time with your own thoughts before. You have now set new goals and have a
bigger desire than ever to achieve them. This shift in mindset and new found
growth is something we never knew we needed, but we got it anyway. Here’s to
the second half of 2020 being far more enjoyable than the first.