How to Start Exercising After a Long Break

Relaxing back into exercise after an extended period of inactivity can be a little bit overwhelming. The entire process, whether it was caused by work, sickness, or just plain old losing motivation, requires a good deal of patience and a plan.

Many individuals make the misconception that they can jump right back into the same fitness routine and experience no pain, injuries, or burnout along the way—in reality, this is far from true. The fundamental rule is that you should be gradually rebuilding your routine and listening to your body as you go through the process.

Importance of Starting Slowly

According to many health professionals including the World Health Organization (WHO), there are tremendous benefits to participating in some type of physical activity, even if it’s as simple as performing light activities.

The goal of your exercise routine will be consistent success in your fitness journey rather than perfection. Starting out at a very basic level will allow your body to adapt to the changes while rebuilding your confidence.

Whether you are currently a part of the world of fast-paced, sedentary, lifestyle society, taking the initial step back into your fitness journey is extremely important at this time. This guide will help introduce you to ways to gradually reintroduce activity and be successful in achieving your fitness goals, as well as staying motivated to keep that same positive momentum going into the future and developing an exercise program that you can maintain long term.

Knowing Where You Are as far as Fitness Level

The easiest way to evaluate how much physical activity, or what types of physical activity, that you are able to perform is through assessing basic aspects of your overall health and fitness. For example, you can assess how tired you become while doing simple activities, like walking up a set of stairs, and/or determine what level of flexibility or weight that you currently have).

All of these simple methods for evaluating your fitness level can help you determine the level of compromise that your body is experiencing from a fitness and exercise standpoint.As per the advice of many trainers associated with the American Council on Exercise, your first step should be some form of self-assessment before diving into an aggressive workout program.

Monitor Your Body Signals

• Monitor for any soreness
• Fatigue
• Changes in respiratory patterns

These type of observations will give you a basis for determining your current physical fitness level.

Major Signs You Need to Ease into It

If you are noticing any of the following symptoms (frequent fatigue, stiffness or shortness of breath) when engaging in light physical activity, then those are major signs that an incremental approach to fitness will be best for your current physical condition.

Set Achievable Goals

The majority of individuals set their exercise goals too high and end up being discouraged as a result of not reaching their goals. It is better to establish a series of small, attainable goals that will create momentum toward your long-term fitness goals and be easier to attain.

Brands like Nike, along with various fitness experts, talk about the power of consistency versus the difficulty in creating intensity.It is usually easier to set a manageable goal (for example, exercising three times per week) versus an unrealistic daily workout that is hard to maintain over time.

Types of Fitness Goals

• Short term goals can include completing an entire week of workouts
• Extending distances of walks that were previously difficult to do
• Long term fitness goals provide a pathway to pursuing your goals as they relate to overall fitness

Short term goals provide you with immediate “wins” and provide a degree of motivation to participate in your overall program.

Avoid Common Mistakes

Remember that fitness improvements will take time, and by expecting quick fixes, you will begin to experience burnout.

Your body’s muscles, joints, and cardiovascular system have become deconditioned and will need to have a period of adjustment before they are prepared for intense training.

Beginner Exercise Suggestions

• Walking
• Stretching
• Basic Strength Training Exercises

Many trainers out there, including Nike Training Club‘s trainers, will suggest completing your first four to six weeks of exercise using lower intensity routines and then building up the level of intensity as you become more comfortable with the exercises you have chosen to do.

Recovery and Routine

They allow for muscle recovery and provide you with an opportunity to prevent burnout so that your fitness program is successful.

After a long period of time of inactivity, your body will require frequent movement to get stronger and build endurance again. Creating a regular schedule allows your mind and body to run on autopilot, as you will naturally begin to move your body on a daily basis instead of putting your movement off as you have before.

Also, by having a consistent exercise program, you will also slowly begin to decrease the amount of time that you mentally fight with yourself to resume your movement again.Creating a routine for your workouts can be accomplished by working out at the same time every day which helps turn working out into a habit instead of a decision.

Many fitness professionals from the American Heart Association agree that regularly completing moderate activity is better than doing random periodic intense activity.

Warm-Up and Preparation

These two steps are very important in getting the body ready for exercise and preventing injury. A good warm-up will help to circulate blood throughout your body as well as to loosen up your joints.

When you haven’t exercised in a while, your muscles tend to be much more stiff and will tend to have more strains on them when starting to exercise without doing a proper warm-up.

Dynamic Stretching

Dynamic stretching is used especially well when warming up because it is a form of stretching that you do while moving which improves flexibility and reduces the amount of strain that your body will feel during your workout.

Listening to Your Body

The main skill that you should develop when restarting your exercise routine is learning how to listen to your body. A very common occurrence for many individuals just starting out is that pushing too hard or much too soon results in injury.

However, if you happen to experience sharp and/or continuous pain, this should be considered as something that should not be ignored. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provide guidelines to indicate that progression in activity should be done gradually in order to avoid threshold injuries.

Signs of Overtraining

• Continuing fatigue
• Reduced performance on workouts
• Lack of motivation to work out
• Insomnia
• Persistent soreness in the muscles

Whenever you discover these indicators, then you should focus on reducing the amount of intensity of your workout and allow yourself to fully recover.

Overcoming Low Motivation

Consistency is the most critical factor in continuing to build a workout routine and little things you do will add up to significant amounts of progress over a lifetime.

Conclusion

When you start exercising after a long time do not try to do too much too soon. You need to build a routine that you can keep up with.

To do this you should think about how fit you’re now make goals that are possible and get better at a slow pace. This will help you have health for a long time.

You need to be consistent, patient and know yourself to get where you want to go with exercise. If you listen to your body and keep doing your routine you will see results.

Exercise is not something you do, for a while it is something you do for your whole life. It makes your body and mind feel better.