These tips are going to be more than just me giving you an exercise plan and saying, “good luck!”

Getting in shape is simple…Move more, eat less. That’s it!

It’s the following through, week after week and staying consistent that’s the challenging part.

So if you want to learn how to get back into working out then read on as I go through why this is important to me and then into my top 5 tips.

 

P.S. Check out the YouTube video I made on how to get back into working out if you don’t want to read.

 

 

My Experience With Getting Back Into Working Out

I’ve been through various experiences in my life where I wasn’t feeling in shape or athletic. It first started when I got my job out of college. It was my first professional job and I was stressed, wasn’t getting good sleep and not taking proper care of myself.

I gained 30 pounds in just a few months!

The weight was hard to get off because I had such a demanding career. With that job I found it was hard to find time to exercise when I actually had the ENERGY to do so. I did eventually get the weight off, lost 30 pounds, and now weight 161 lbs (just weighed myself this morning).

It all started first with my COMMITMENT to get it off no matter what. No “time?” That was just an excuse I was telling myself. Didn’t have the energy? I started taking better care of myself, got more sleep and therefore eventually felt more vibrant to exercise more.

It wasn’t easy but I did it. And if I can do it, and millions of others, you can do!

I’ve gone through this process a few times and each time I’ve followed these 5 tips I’m about to share with you. If I didn’t stick to them I’d get frustrated because I wasn’t seeing the results. I always remind myself to stick to them no matter what.

 

1. Be Easy On Yourself

If you’re getting back into working out your performance probably won’t be where it was at before. You have to realize that going in or else you’ll have wrong expectations. Then when you don’t perform to those expectations you’ll get disappointed or frustrated.

Simple start where you can and do what you can.

When I was recovering from a bad head on car collision I got frustrated because I was super in shape before but after that happened it was basically a reset for me. When I did get back into the gym months later I could barely do 135lbs on the bench, when I doing over 200lb before. It took me some time to say to myself, “alright, Chaz, you’re not where you were once before. That’s okay, totally happens. Just BE EASY on yourself.”

For you, be easy on yourself, don’t beat yourself up if you couldn’t do the weight you could before or can’t run as far as you did before. Start where you can.

 

2. Start Small

There are two parts to this tip when getting back in shape after a big life event, injury or illness.

The first is the physiological side.

A. Physiological

Your connective tissue may not be as strong as it once was. Connective tissue is what connects all your muscles, bones, skin and everything else together. This is tissue like ligaments, tendons, cartilage and more.

Over time of not as much use of the ligaments and tendons, they start to weaken like muscles do. And as they weaken that means they can’t take as much pressure, contortion and pulling as they once could. So when your connective tissue is weakened then your risk getting injured easier.

If you go back into the gym after not working for a long time and jump right into heavy weights. You’re setting yourself up to get hurt.

You have to first go back for the first couple weeks and do high reps, lower weight, exercises because that will strengthen more of the connective tissue.

Once that’s strengthening after a few weeks, then you can move onto more intense movements and heavier weight.

 

B. Mental/Emotional

You may not be able to carry yourself through 45 minute workouts 5 days a week like you were before (for example).

As you’re aware, doing workouts and doing them consistently takes a lot of mental focus and emotional capacity to do it consistently and hard enough to make it count.

Start small so this area grows too.

 

3. Be Patient

Think about getting back into working out like a plant seed…Bear with me.

Like a plant seed, it can be dormant underground for a while. In order to sprout, it needs the right conditions. It needs sun, oxygen, water and the right temperature. It needs the combo of all of those and ample amounts of those before it even gets to a little sprout out of the ground.

Then as it continues to grow the seedling turns into a tree. Similar thing with your exercise motivation.

Think of your exercise motivation like that seed. If you haven’t worked out in a while, it may just have gone a little dormant and went underground. It might just be a little motivation seedling at this point. And that’s okay! I’ve been there. LOL, I hope you’re liking this analogy…Leave a comment below what you think of this analogy.

It’s important to take care of your exercise motivation. Your health has to be right, timing is important, sleep matters and there’s so many more areas of your life that come into play to set up your exercise motivation for the right conditions so you can get back into working out like a boss!

That’s why it’s important to be patient with this and slowly grow it over time. As it builds up, you can throw more at it such as harder workouts, more weight…etc.

 

4. Have An Exercise Plan

If you don’t have an exercise plan you run into the yo-yo effect. It’s the up and downs of having that fire to workout then getting burnt out, and going back to your old lifestyle. I’ve had this happen to me multiple times until I got a handle on it. Comment below if this happens to you and what your experience has been.

An exercise plan will help mitigate that because it’ll keep you consistent. A good exercise plan SHOULD’NT burn you out. It should be a good pace that works for your personal schedule.

What’s worked for me is to do 3 main strength workouts a week with 3 to 4 walking on the off days (45 minutes).

That’s an easy plan to get back into it. If you’d like more personal attention and coaching on how to get an exact exercise plan then reach out to me and set up a FREE 20 minute consultation and we’ll see if coaching may be right for you.

You need to have a solid and proven plan to keep you on track so you don’t run into the yo-yo effect that comes from doing random exercises.

 

5. Start Exercising In A Place You Feel Comfortable In

When you’re getting back into working out after a long layoff then you have to keep in mind what I’ve talked about. Your connective tissue may be weaker, your performance might be down, your capabilities may not be where they once were.

All of this can stack up when you go back to working out because it might get in your head. When you are going back into working out, make sure it’s in a place you’re comfortable.

A lot of people get intimidated by a big-box-gym because when they go in they’re aware of their physical performance more than before and realize their capabilities may not be where they were. Also, they might not look like everyone else in the gym and that’s COMPLETELY OKAY. They haven’t worked out in a while so it’s expected. That happens to all of us. But sometimes that can get too much into peoples head’s. And when that happens they don’t want to go back into working out, not because they don’t like exercising because they actually do enjoy it, but they become self-conscious with their limited capabilities compared to everyone else in there.

That’s why you want to start working out in a place that’s comfortable to YOU. That’s one of the benefits of what I’m always preaching, which is bodyweight training at home. Because you don’t feel as judged or AS self conscious in your own home.

 

Conclusion

  1. Be easy on yourself
  2. Start small
  3. Be patient
  4. Have an exercise plan
  5. Start working out in a place you feel comfortable in

 

I hope you enjoyed this article! Leave a comment below which one stuck out to you the most.

Also, if you’d like more help when getting back into working out and prefer more of a one-on-one approach then set up a FREE 20 minute consultation with me personally to see if coaching may a good option for you.

 

Disclaimers

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