How to return back to your gym without getting injured

As gyms and fitness studios slowly reopen, I know many of you will be eager to hop right back into your old program and routine.


This is a great way to get injured!


If you've been taking some time off training or have been training at a reduced capacity from home, you're likely somewhat de-conditioned. Furthermore, the stress from all of this affects your life more than you might think. 

fitness-coaching-studio-return-to-gym-injury-free-minneapolis-mn.jpg



Even seemingly unrelated stressors can have physiological ramifications on your ability to perform and recover. Division I football players, for example, have been shown to get injured nearly twice as often during periods of high academic stress.



So if you've been experiencing some extra stress during this quarantine, this will have an effect on your performance and don’t forget about your recovery!



Flatten The Curve (sound familiar?)

This time used a different way. One of the best ways to help prevent injuries is to simply “flatten out” the spikes of this load as much as possible.  This is quite similar to the “flatten the curve” policy that’s been put in place at the beginning of this pandemic.

You’ll want to spread out the volume of your work so that it never spikes to the point where it exceeds your recovery capacity. Basically, start slow and start light! You may not be doing as many sets or reps and definitely not at the weight you were before the pandemic. Listen to your body. If it hurts or doesn’t feel right, please don’t push through it. The No Pain No Gain is NOT a good motto. It never works for anyone!



Build Up Slowly

A good rule of thumb is however much time you've spent off of your normal training routine is about how long you should spend ramping back up. Research shows about a 10% increase in total training volume per week is a good rate to minimize risk of injury. Your first workout may only be 10-15 min and that’s OK. Go slow and focus on your form.

fitness-coaching-studio-return-to-gym-minneapolis-mn.jpg



Take a proper warm-up and cool down

A good warmup preps your body for the increase in activity and a cool-down allows your heart rate to return to a normal resting rate. Don't cut corners here. Ever heard of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness)? I know you’ve felt it. If you don’t take a proper warmup, cool down, and ease into your workouts, soreness could put you out of commission and possible injured right out of the gate.



Recover

Especially when starting a new routine (which it will be) you need to make sure you are preparing and recovering properly for your workouts. By recovery, I don’t mean lying on the couch. I mean SMR (self myofascial release), stretching, mobility work, going for a walk, a slow recovery jog. Let your body relax. When we exercise it causes stress and too much stress on the body does not equal results.

Too many times, we go, go, go and at high intensity. We get addicted to the feeling/endorphin release we get from exercise and we start craving that high intensity all the time. This is what I call a cortisol junkie. That’s not a good thing and instead of getting results, its going to take you the other way.

If you’ve learned anything from the pandemic is that we can have a much slower lifestyle. Keep that mentality in your workouts. This is a good time to rethink your training plan and get some help from a coach, at least while you are starting back up.



Other factors?

Other factors to consider is that you will likely be wearing a mask so don’t forget to plan your workouts and what is safe to do with a mask on.

Most people will be fine exercising with a mask if they keep it low to moderate intensity. If you start to experience symptoms like lightheadedness, dizziness, numbness or tingling. and shortness of breath it is not for you or you need to reduce the intensity. I would not recommend high intensity training with a mask on.

It’s not all rainbows and unicorns when gyms open. You won’t be working out the same as you once were.

Your cardio will likely need to take place remotely and you may even be limited on equipment and space so if you can continue to be at home, do it!

Maybe now isn’t your time to hurry back to the gym. Check out some of our other posts about online coaching and how it can help you as an alternative and our other goodie for those chomping at the bit to get back in how to know if it’s safe to return to your gym and what to ask or watch for before returning.







Previous
Previous

We are Open for private 1-on-1 Personal Training and Small Group Training

Next
Next

Not sure what to do for exercise? Free workouts not cutting it? Gaining weight?