Odds are you probably took some time off from training over the Christmas and New Year season, or at least didn’t train as much as usual. Or, perhaps you’ve taken some time off for another reason and are looking to get back into a regular exercise routine. It can be difficult and sometimes frustrating when you start training again but can’t do the things you could a couple of months ago, which is why we’ve put together our top 4 tips to help you get back to where you were before your break.
1. Start Small
You might be tempted to try and pick up exactly where you left off, but we suggest you try and ease into it – train 3 days instead of 5 for the first couple of weeks, take a few kilos off what you would usually lift, or give yourself some extra time to finish your run. As you begin to get back into the swing of things, you can gradually increase the duration and intensity of your exercise.
2. Manage Your Expectations
While this is much easier said than done, keeping your expectations lower than usual will help you adjust. The feeling of struggling to do something you could easily do only a few weeks ago is incredibly frustrating – but if you go into a training session with the expectation that you won’t be exactly where you were, it can make it just that little bit easier for you to adjust.
3. Recovery is Key!
Taking the proper time to recover by cooling down, stretching and taking rest/active recovery days will do wonders to help you consistently improve. Take a look at our Active Recovery Versus Complete Rest and Recovery to Boost Performance blogs to get some more ideas on how to best utilise recovery in your training regime.
4. Keep Track of Your Nutrition
What you eat and your hydration levels can have a big impact on your training and recovery. Fuelling your body with the right foods will give you energy to train, and also assist with decreasing recovery time. Everyone is different in terms of how much they need to eat and drink, but figuring out your daily calorie, carb, protein and water intake is a good place to start. If you’re not sure about how to get started with this, our dietitian can help! You can book in with her here.
While it’s never going to be a straight line between where you are now and getting back to where you were, following these steps can help you begin to move in the right direction.
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