Common experiences include taking long breaks from exercise, whether because the body is recovering from an injury, illness, or a hectic schedule or due to simple burnout. Frustrated and physically stiff often describes most of us after such experiences. Most important in not returning is mental pressure telling you that you have to take off right where you stopped. If practicing at, or trying to match, your peak performance from a bygone time occurs too early, injuries, extremely sore muscles, and eventually motivation loss result. Successful return is a new mindset: patience and consistency over intensity. In respecting the current state of your body and taking it back to the very early stages, you can turn it into an exercise habit over a lifetime rather than a temporary chore.
Reset Your Expectations
You might not now move as you did earlier, and that’s quite fine. It puts unnecessary pressure on you to compare yourself with your “former self.” The progress of today, instead of the grief of yesterday, should be celebrated when a place is accepted as a current starting point.
Start with Movement, Not “Workouts”
Mostly just reintegrate the thing that really matters, just starting with light movement: walking, some stretching and mobility work. All of these things count-as-progress. They are gentle movements through which to allow the joints and nervous system to adapt but not the big stress of a gym session.
Keep Sessions Short and Manageable
Most mental barriers cross the threshold of these 60 minutes. So only commit to 15 minutes or 20 minutes-that’s much easier. Not a long workout, but at least short sessions that can fit into busy schedules, and help at least a bit in overcoming the resistance to actually start.
Extend Your Warm-Up Period
Preparing muscles and joints for work after being inactive for a long time needs extra time. In fact, let 10 minutes go by on dynamic movements to get blood flow and range of motion up. That’s the best way to hurt less.
Schedule Rest Just Like a Workout
Rest days are when muscular adaptation is most actual. After time off, your system needs more time to adapt to stress. Paying off quality sleep and quality downtime sustains motivation.
Increase one variable at a time
One variable changes in training: time, intensity, and frequency. Increasing all three at once spells burnout.
Look at exercise as self care
Exercise is not punishment for not moving. Instead, it should be treated as something that makes you feel stronger, able, and clear in the mind. After all, when it feels as a gift for the body, then it becomes much easier to sustain.
Be Consistent
Consistent short workouts are way better than one hard workout followed by five days of soreness. Though not as intense, this builds momentum much quicker.
Accept Soreness, Don’t Seek it
Soreness in the muscles is ok; if it hurts too much, then it means you have overdone it. Train somewhere in between feeling challenged and feeling good, rather than being laid up for the next day.
