With the ease of lockdown and the re-opening of gyms, many of us are eager to get straight in and start off from where we left off. However, it’s important to remember that over the lockdown period, it’s possible that we may have lost muscle tone and tissue and therefore, it’s recommended that regular gym-goers take it easy when returning to the gym. Below we outline important factors to take into consideration:

Fitness

It can be hard to gauge how much your level of fitness has dipped, especially if you have done very little in terms of exercise while lockdown has been in effect. Your baseline level of fitness could be a lot lower than before, so it’s crucial that when you return to exercise, you take preventative measures to ensure that you don’t get injured. As such, we highly recommend that on your return to exercise, you take the following steps:

• Use lower resistance settings when using gym equipment.
• Lower the weights of each individual exercise by at least 10% or the overall volume of your session by the same amount.
• If you haven’t continued your cardio routine during lockdown, be sure to start a little softer than usual, whether this be cutting down your normal run from 10km to 8km or making HIIT workouts 30 minutes instead of 45 –  It’s important to give your body time to adjust, so building up slowly will be key to your success.

Furthermore you need to understand that even if you have been maintaining your level of fitness over lockdown, the exercise my not directly correlate to other exercises. Each exercise uses a different muscle group and it’s important to build up slowly each muscle group in order for it to adapt.

Nutrition – Sports Physio London

For many of us, our nutritional habits may have changed during the lockdown period. Good nutrition and hydration are essential to keeping our body healthy and our muscles strong and both play important role in our performance in the gym.

Protocol

Many new protocols have been enforced in gyms due to the current pandemic so it is very important to observe and abide by those when you work out to ensure the safety of both yourself and others. It also is important that you know about these so that you can plan your routine to work around any restriction or safety precautions that have been taken and maintain the flow and focus of your workout at the same time

Remember, it’s not about making up for lost time. We know it’s tempting to want to work as hard as possible to get back to where you were but by doing this, you are putting yourself at much higher risk of injury.

If you are unsure what you should be doing upon your return to the gym and are struggling with injuries, get in touch today with our Sports Physio team in London, Lewisham and Southend on Sea. We have both face to face and virtual appointments available. Click here to contact us now