It’s not easy to get back to the gym after time away. Still, the key is learning to regain strength without sustaining injuries.
Hitting the gym intent on making up for lost time or losing extra weight you may have picked up during the layoff takes some planning and patience, as well as taking a calculated, progressive approach to get long-term gains.
By getting back to your previous good habits and routines, you can beat your previous best, but bear in mind that:
- The risk of injury, muscle damage, fatigue, and DOMS is higher
- Gains are more accessible because your body is likely more receptive to regular training
- Volume tolerance for volume is lower than it used to be.
- The effective stimulus threshold is lower, so you will initially gain more despite doing less
To minimize the risk of injury and maximize long-term gains, gradually ramp up workouts and follow the guidelines to get back in shape fast and without injury.
Assessing Injury Risk
Previous injury risk is a one of the indicators. Young, healthy people who haven’t had any significant injuries have a relatively low risk but use common sense to gauge where your limits are.
Making A Plan
To optimize training while getting back on track, keep in mind that any muscle and strength lost will be regained rapidly, but there should be room in the plan for continued long-term progress.
The plan shouldn’t start where you left off but should be designed around your most recent successes, scaling up gradually. To do this:
- Ignore previous weight maxes
- Use Reps in Reserve (RIR) to manage intensity
- Reduce the intensity, volume and frequency of your last pre-layoff session
- Increase workout frequency first
Higher Skill Movements Drop The Most
Returning to the gym and hitting personal records in the first week or two is impossible. However, increased complex lift skills can be regained over time without too much effort by adding weight to the bar progressively from session to session.
The higher the skill component of a lift pre-layoff, the greater the drop-off on session one, but it will come back.
Skills take practice and even strength is a skill and skills won’t be at all-time highs when you return but a workout routine using lighter weights still stimulates the muscle while getting reacquainted with optimal technique.
Rep Speed and Range of Motion (ROM)
When it comes to muscle and tendon injury, rep speed and range of motion (ROM) play crucial roles. Fast reps while a muscle is under a loaded stretch often cause more damage, which is exacerbated by muscle strains. Similarly, tendons are under high levels of stress when stretched under load at high speeds.
Chasing extreme ranges could set you up for injury but instead of doing ultra-slow partial reps, use moderate tempos in the first few weeks of getting back into the gym. Focus on control over the lowering phases of lifts and get a good mind-muscle connection. Paused reps are a good way to avoid the use of momentum.
Exercises that place an extreme stretch on a muscle, such as good mornings, RDLs, and DB flies, are risky, and leg curls and 45-degree back extensions are a better choice for hamstrings. Cable flys or pec deck are also better than DB flys in the beginning phases, gradually building up your range using modified versions of exercises to transition from partial to full range.
Reps In Reserve (RIR)
Reps in Reserve (RIR) is about your ability to feel out the weight. Much like the RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) scale of 1-10 on the difficulty of a lift, RIR is your own estimate of how many extra reps you could perform until failure. While getting back into your technique, use lighter loads than before and calculate RIR to determine intensity.
For a set of 8-12 reps, choose a weight you think will work after warming up, then select an RIR target. 4RIR on compound and free-weight lifts and 3RIR on isolation and machine-based exercises are good starts and provide a stimulus to getting back in shape, but they leave room for progress.
You could find that you can add weight to the bar each week without your RIR changing. Less skilled exercises like leg extensions need less coordination and stabilization, so your technique will probably be on point within a few sets.
Minimal Effective Dose (MED)
The three main variables to implement in your training plan are Intensity, Volume, and Frequency. An overload after a layoff is much lower than it was when you had been at full tilt for years, so lowering intensity, volume, and frequency will still get results.
A MED approach creates a more significant opportunity for overloading training, with the difference between starting minimum effective dose (MED) and maximal recoverable volume (MRV) significantly larger than pre-layoff.
Extend the length of an effective training block to reduce the difference, gaining more over the long term. Intensity can be managed by RIR, and volume starts with the lowest amount. Over time, volume will be built back up to what it was before.
Training Frequency
Frequency is the variable with the most scope to increase and should be the first to return, focussing on one per body part per session per week, increasing after a week or two because muscle damage and delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) will be high.
DOMS is an indicator that a muscle is still recovering and the muscle should rest and recover before another session.
Increasing frequency will naturally increase volume, and by scaling RIR in conjunction with volume and frequency, intensity increases.
Rest Days Are Important
When trying to make up for lost time, it’s tempting to forget that recovery plays a significant role in training. It’s not so much about lifting weights but rather the recovery from lifting weights that delivers results.
Recovery is a key part of the formula so don’t sabotage gains by excluding recovery. During days off, the muscle is working to repair itself, and this is what builds bigger and stronger muscles.
Consistency over the long term is key. When returning to the gym, a little makes a big difference, so work out a sustainable training approach with space to do more over time. Listen to your body and track your gym performance. A patient approach builds a solid foundation, and more is added gradually.
Returning To The Gym
Returning to the gym is a chance to see beginner gains all over, but don’t try to lift the whole rack on day one. Reduce previous volume, intensity, and frequency for a few weeks, then scale things up slowly. Be smart- getting injured and having another enforced layoff from the gym would be counter-productive,
Simon Turner is a former Obstacle Workout features writer and writes regularly on sports, fitness and adventure for Probody.
