The gym is back open, awesome! This means you go back straight back into heavy training, right? Not so fast; just because the gym is open doesn’t mean you should smash out the heavy weights, fast track your lifting or up your cardio training to level 10. You’ll need to ease back into training to prevent injury.
It is great to be super motivated and pumped about your health and fitness, and please keep that motivation, but let’s be smart about easing back in:
- For the first week, just do very light weights and practise the exercises that you will be doing. Take your time learning any new exercises to ensure you have the correct technique.
- Do lots of reps to help the body start to wake up from not doing any weight-bearing exercise for a while.
- Trial a few different training times; see what works best for you on different days.
- Set up your new training program. Consider a one-on-one session with a personal trainer to guide you and correct your techniques if necessary.
- Set short-term goals and stick to your plan.
- If you are going to do classes, get the timetable and check out different options.
When heading back into the gym, you need to have a good understanding of what works best for you, and when you feel most comfortable there. I like the place to be just about empty and can use most of the equipment without much of a wait. If the equipment you want is being used, move to your next exercise and come back later.
Start-up workout: whole body
This workout will give you a great start to get back into gym training. Take your time to ease back in and use light weights.
- Warm up: 10 mins treadmill
- 15 x bench press (bar only)
- 15 x tricep push downs
- 15 x push-ups
- 15 x standing dumbbell bicep curls
- 5 mins treadmill
- 15 x lat pull downs behind head
- 15 x seated dumbbell shoulder press, each arm
- 15 x seated row
- 2 mins sit-ups
- 5 mins treadmill
- 15 x leg extension
- 15 x lying hamstring curl
- 15 x dumbbell calf raises, weight in the hand of the side doing the raises, each leg
- Cool down: 5 mins treadmill
- 10 mins stretching
More health & wellbeing:
