We’ve nearly made it through lockdown and are set for gyms to be back open any day now – but how are we going to get the most out of our return to training, and ensure that we’re doing things safely?
Your return to gym life depends heavily on what kind of movement you’ve managed to maintain during lockdown – so identify which group you belong to from the list below and get your return to training planned!
What follows are “typical gym goer” recommendations – i.e. you’re not a competitive powerlifter, bodybuilder, Olympic athlete, etc. – you guys should already know how to get back to things!
You’ve probably experienced the most significant loss of physical ability during lockdown, but the good news is you will have rested any old injuries massively, and you won’t have built any imbalances. You can start back on your previous training plan reasonably quickly – just make sure to have a week or two where you don’t overly tax yourself, and you warm up properly and stretch off after your sessions. Full body 3x a week, 3 exercises a session, 10-15 reps, 3-4 sets will be a great start point – don’t push to complete failure, leave some in the tank, and progress on total exercises and volume week on week.
Your fitness may now be better than ever having had the chance to focus purely on CV work. You’ll have a similar start to weight training as Couch Mode, but will be able to handle more exercises and volume from the start, especially in your legs. You should be able to start at full body 4x a week, 3-4 exercises a session, 10-15 reps, 3-4 sets. Again like Couch Mode don’t push to complete failure from day 1!
You should have pretty good overall fitness and flexibility, though it is unlikely you’ve achieved a fully balanced workout through lockdown with posterior work being harder with bodyweight. Like Free Spirit start at full body 4x a week, 3-4 exercises a session, 10-15 reps, 3-4 sets. Be mindful about progressing posterior movements too quickly – back, glutes, hamstrings, calves – unless you’ve managed to hit them at home.
Whilst you’ve been able to keep moving, you’ve lacked overall stimulus and ability to hit muscles from lots of angles. So even though you have been more muscularly active than the others above, there’s a strong chance you have left yourself with imbalances. Again we’d recommend full body 4x a week, 3-4 exercises a session, 10-15 reps, 3-4 sets, but you need to think carefully about the exercises you choose. Initially focus on exercises that you haven’t been able to perform, and work at a light weight, ensuring you’ve fully mobilised shoulders, hips and so forth. The goal is to avoid letting any imbalance settle in for the long term, or create a situation where you try to go too heavy in a plane of movement you are not accustomed to, and strain a muscle/tendon.
You’ve had your “big 3” all through lockdown, but haven’t had any sort of accessory work due to limits in kit. You have probably retained enough volume to be able to maintain a split workout pattern, but could also suffer from some imbalances like Baby Weights. A couple of weeks focusing on accessory work will give your whole body the chance to level itself out and get you back to your normal training plan.
We hope that everyone is rearing to go on the 25th, but please, please, please remember – respect the weights!!! With months of reduced activity under your belt, if you come into the Häus and start throwing around huge weights you really are risking injury, short term or long. Given how long it’s been since enjoying a gym has “been a thing”, a bit of intelligent self preservation in the first few weeks back will keep you from having to take time off injured… which would be beyond frustrating for you!