Lockdown restrictions are being eased! Gyms are finally reopening! Yaaay!

I must admit like a lot of people I’ve struggled a bit these last 4 months without access to a gym and the variety that comes with it –although not being able to get a haircut ran a close second. I do think though this time away has presented all of us with some opportunities;

Recover from Injuries

The simple fact is no-one goes through their entire Health and Fitness journey without picking up injuries, niggling pains, aches. It can’t be avoided no matter what we do, professional athletes are finely tuned machines but even they are vulnerable to injuries. This rest time, lack of training or different style of training i.e. bodyweight has given us all time to recover and time to let those possible niggling injuries heal up properly. 

Revaluate

After 4 months we are potentially starting all over again from scratch, which means a chance of setting out some brand-new goals. This is a chance to look and rethink what it is we’re wanting to get out of our training, what type of training we’ve missed and enjoyed before the lockdown, what has worked well for you in the past or it could just be simply aiming to get back on track. You may have even found yourselves enjoying and equally benefiting from a different approach.

Chance to improve movement patterns

There’s no getting around the fact that none of us are going back into the gym as strong or as durable as we were before the lockdown, our endurance levels won’t be as high and we could fatigue much sooner so we’re going to be looking at using lighter weights in the first month or so. Essentially we’re going to have to regress to progress, steadily increasing the volume or intensity over a potentially a longer, slower period of time so we can avoid /minimise any Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). This does give us the chance to explore the movement patterns that we are producing and correct them if we need to. Going lighter will also mean we could focus on improving our range of movement as I’m sure you are all familiar with that if/when you start going heavier you can potentially start to shorten your movement out of instinct as it becomes harder to complete the exercise without failing.