One of the hardest things to do when it comes to health and fitness is regain your strength after an extended break of several months. Over the past 2 years of 2020-2021 government enforced lockdowns have left many people restricted to strength workouts with little to no equipment for several months on end. Many even gave up on exercise altogether! Now that many are heading back to the gym to regain their former strength and fitness there is a real danger that many will over-train and try to go ‘from zero to hero’ in the first week! This is a common mistake we see all the time when people return to the gym after an extended holiday or break and try to get back to their best instantly. Any elite sporting athlete knows they need a schedule to gradually ease their body back into peak form, for if they try to rush the process, they risk getting injured. In this article we asked our trainer Nathan to explain how he went about the process of getting back to full strength and fitness once he started training again.

Stage 1 – Basic Lifts & Moving Well

I find these first few workouts a real test to remained focus on not going too hard. I had to hold back a bit and spend these first few sessions perfecting my technique across the various movements that I had not done for some time. Technique is everything and even though I am familiar with the exercises I need to allow time for my brain and my body to remember how to it perfectly. A big part of this first week is not so much how hard the exercises are, but getting back into the habit of training at a certain time and creating the routine I had before the lock-down.

The very first session you do it is important to keep the loads light, the session short, and keep everything controlled as possible for the body will be in for a real shock. Even though in your mind you know what you are doing, the muscles will not be used to the intensity so you need to ease them back in.

My first session back I like to complete an all-round workout covering all the movements and muscles. It is not about how long I train for, or how heavy I lift, but how well I move. I lift roughly 50% of my maximum weight per set focusing on good breathing and control. I usually choose barbell exercises and cable exercises to begin with as they are easy to control.

In my head I think – “Wow, how is this lighter weight taxing my body right now?” But, I also think to myself – “Don’t worry this is just a warm up for the next 6 months of my journey back to my peak, I will get there!”

There is no rush, it is important to take your time and stick to your original plan.

My tips for stage one are:

• Aim for quality of movement instead of training to fatigue
• Pick a between 4-6 main compound exercises
• Lift only 50% of your max performance per exercise
• Keep rep range between 6-12, and about 3 sets for each exercise
• Give yourself comfortable rest times between 60-120 seconds to allow for good form.

 Here is a rough example of what I do for my first workout back

Session Summary

I found the deadlifts were hard to maintain good posture as my lower back and hamstrings felt really tight. I decided to spend more time with my hip mobility and stretching of my glutes and hamstrings for the rest of the week between workouts.

Stage 2: Fine Tuning the Body

After my first session I like to reassess what is working well and what needs to adjusted. It is important to give yourself 1-2 days rest before the second workout as your body will be very sore in the first week. I like to pick on the weaknesses more than the things I am good at.

For example, I found the deadlifts were the hardest to perform and my legs pulled up much sorer than my upper body so I will increase the amount of work I do in my second workout, not worrying about my upper body as much. Also in this second session, I will make sure I do some light exercises between the harder sets, whether it is to stretch or do mobility exercises to fine tune my movements!

With the deadlifts I found it was very hard to maintain good posture so I reduced the load lifted and included several mobility drills between sets to correct my body position. It seems like you are going backwards at first, but it will pay off for you later on and allow you to move quickly to bigger loads in the coming weeks without any risk of injury or pain.

Here is what I did in my second week.

Session Summary:

Kettlebell Romanian deadlift light sets at the start made the bent over row position easier to hold. This week I have developed muscle soreness in the upper body and starting to feel much stronger as the weights increased in load.

I would aim for 2-3 of these type of sessions per week ensuring they are evenly spread out with rest days between. If things do not feel right I might stick with this workout for 2-3 weeks but if I feel good I will move onto stage 3.

If you are not 100% sure of your exercise technique still I would not move to stage three just yet. Make sure you grab a copy of our FREE report on functional strength training below as this has pictures and instructions of most of the common gym movements. Click here to get your copy.

Stage 3: Simple Heavy Sets

At this point is where your training focus might branch out to different areas depending on your goal. For example, if you want to get stronger I would lean towards heavier loads with your weights lifted. If you just want to tone up or lose weight, I would try to increase my training volume and reduce the rest time between sets.

Stage 3 is when you are beginning climb up towards your peak with some exercises but you are still holding a bit back in reserve. I usually stay in this stage for 4-6 weeks.

For my own training I liked to focus on my maximal strength for the first time using a simple sets method. This is where I use more sets than normal with lower reps to dramatically increase the intensity of the lifts. This is my first taste of going hard. To minimise the risk and avoid stiffening up too much I like to keep some unilateral sets between lifts. I learned this valuable lesson years ago and it is a great way to stop my joints getting too sore.

Here is what I did in this training phase.

Session summary:

This type of training does not tire me out too much as there is quite a lot of resting time. However, what it does do is get me used to the intensity of heavy lifting again. Without being at my absolute best it gives me a good measurement of where I am at with my current strength. After just a few of these workouts I feel my upper body strength increasing quite quickly. I feel it is much easier to maintain control and posture now as opposed to stage 2 where I was fatiguing quickly.

I may change the exercises around a bit in this phase to get my body used to different equipment and positions I have not used for a while.

Stage 4: “Giant Sets”

This stage I have completely flipped my training objective to now be all about strength endurance and training volume, instead of maximal strength and high intensity. This type of training gives you the ability to develop muscles’ ability to produce repeated contractions under conditions of fatigue. A combination of slow-twitch & fast twitch fibres are used here.

This workout is exhausting, and is the first real taste of fitness training. This really takes a bit of getting used to and it is a real shock to the system as there just seems to be little relief. At first I was sore for 4 days after doing this workout, but after a few weeks I started to get the hang of it and I was no longer as wasted.

Due to the extreme amount of volume with these workouts I would only do a maximum of 3 sessions in the week. I would spend time with basic mobility and stability drills on the other days and even fit in a light run on one day each week.

Obviously each time you progress to a more difficult phase the risks of injury and fatigue increase and it is important you allow time for recovery as it takes a longer time for your body to adapt. There is so much more muscle damage from training like this that sometimes it is hard to exercise as often as you were in the earlier stages.  

Here is one of my workouts from this phase.

Session Summary:

I notice how I am getting very close to my strength I had months ago with many of the exercises by now. I also notice how great my body feels whenever I use the unilateral sets with more reps between heavier lifting sets. Often I feel that I need an extra rest day after the first workout of the week as I really go a bit harder than the other sessions later in the week.

I would stay in this phase for about 4 weeks before moving to phase five.

Stage 5: Maximal Strength Hitting Personal Bests

Getting to stage 5 (your best) will take a few months depending on how well you have been able to move through the other phases. Always remember a plan on a piece of paper cannot foresee obstacles like injury, illness, work or home stress that can all affect your ability to progress. Sometimes you just do not have the energy to workout hard and that is fine. Don’t push through, listen to your body and back off a bit. Tomorrow might be a better day to train and your body will appreciate training fresh as opposed to running on fumes.

The objective you are trying to achieve in this stage might vary a lot from mine which is fine.

For me, I wanted to get back to the serious loads I was lifting months ago as maximal strength training is the stuff I enjoy the most. As the name suggests the objective of this is to lift as heavy as possible and places massive amount of stress on the nervous system which is why you often see your arms or legs shake during exercises with this intensity. The big difference between maximal strength and the strength endurance workout from phase four is this type of training recruits more motor units within the muscles as opposed to damaging muscle fibres. The more motor units you have, the stronger you become. You may not improve muscle size that much, but your overall strength will be significantly greater. This is what I want.

I just recognise that it takes a lot of work to get to this point and it cannot be done too fast. I also acknowledge that I might need to have some weeks where I drop all my loads right back.

This is called “de-loading”, which is a term to lighten things up once in a while to give your body a rest while you progress forward. If you do not de-load you will risk injuring ligaments, tendons, and joints with too much load.

Here is one of my maximal strength workouts.

Session Summary:

These workouts take a long time to complete as you need so many sets and a long rest time between them. As a result of this sometimes I had to break my sessions in half as I simply did not have enough time. I also had to allow a bit longer between sessions to ensure my muscles were well and truly rested.

It is really easy to fall into the trap of over-training at this point and even in phase four where you get the buzz and the endorphins kick in as you just feel so good. You have to be well disciplined at these points in your program to keep to your plan and avoid doing too much. This is a big mistake the gym junkie makes and why they will end up with serious injuries by training too much.

Watch the video below that explains the concept of less is more.

For Other Great Workout Ideas Grab A Copy Of The Reports Below

For stacks of other workout ideas and how to put all of this information together just right for you, make sure you get a copy of our Little Black Book Of Training Secrets below. Click here to see more or on the image below to get your copy instantly. The Functional Training report shown earlier is actually one of the chapters from the Little Black Book.

Summary

The main thing to take out of this article is to avoid the temptation to rush your training back too fast. Or as Nick likes to say trying to go from zero to hero. Great results take planning, patience, consistency, discipline, and of course, time. You simply cannot take short cuts to achieve your true potential or you will pay a big price.

Also please understand the program we have shown here is not what every person should do. Every program will be different as we are all unique in our own goals and how our bodies move. This article was to give you a better idea of how someone like Nathan, even with his extensive training experience and strength will still take a long time to get back to his best.

Lastly the best piece of advice we can give you is to try to enjoy the journey of getting to the top, as to be honest that is the fun part when you look back. And isn’t that what exercise is all about?

For more ideas and information on specific topics I may not have covered in detail be sure to check out our INDEX PAGE on the website that has over 300 of our best articles. These are all sorted into categories for quick reference so you can find what you are after more easily. You can also subscribe to our FREE fortnightly newsletter by clicking here.

If you enjoyed this article, live in Melbourne and would like to organise a Free Consultation to discuss how we can help you improve your strength and movement fill in the form below and I will be in touch within 24 hours to schedule a time.

About The Author

Nick Jack is owner of No Regrets Personal Training and has over 15 years’ experience as a qualified Personal Trainer, Level 2 Rehabilitation trainer, CHEK practitioner, and Level 2 Sports conditioning Coach. Based in Melbourne Australia he specialises in providing solutions to injury and health problems for people of all ages using the latest methods of assessing movement and corrective exercise.

References:

• Movement - By Gray Cook
• Corrective Exercise Solutions - by Evan Osar
• Athletic Body Balance by Gray Cook
• Diagnosis & Treatment Of Movement Impairment Syndromes - By Shirley Sahrman
• Low Back Disorders - by Stuart McGill
• Back Pain Mechanic - by Stuart McGill
• Anatomy Trains - by Thomas Meyers
• Motor Learning and Performance - By Richard A Schmidt and Timothy D Lee
• Assessment & Treatment Of Muscle Imbalance - By Vladimir Janda
• How To Eat, Move & Be Healthy by Paul Chek
• Scientific Core Conditioning Correspondence Course - By Paul Chek
• Advanced Program Design - By Paul Chek
• Twist Conditioning Sports Strength - By Peter Twist
• Twist Conditioning Sports Movement - By Peter Twist
• Twist Conditioning Sports Balance - By Peter Twist