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Creating the Best Post-Quarantine Workouts

Creating the Best Post-Quarantine Workouts

Due to the global circumstances, fitness enthusiasts everywhere have been forced into “hiding.” Hiding means spending copious amounts of time doing push-ups, dips on the coffee table and squats with dogs, grocery bags and loved ones in your arms, right?

 

No, it hasn’t been awesome, but it has been worth it.

 

Returning to the gym is something you’ve probably looked forward to for months. Paramount to that return is maintaining a safe environment for yourself and others. This probably looks like cleaning equipment before and after use and maintaining appropriate distance when able. Secondary is putting together the perfect workout routine to ensure maximal gains upon reentering your domicile of exercise. Here, we’ll discuss the latter.

 

So, exactly how much work will you need during your first month of training?

 

You might be a hardcore athlete, but at the end of the day, you’re also a human being. And as such, you may be so overjoyed about returning to the gym that you plan to “smash” your body out of sheer excitement. It’s tempting. However, this would be misguided, at least from a physiologic perspective.

 

Hear me out.

 

There’s a reason why professional sports teams, marathon runners and high-profile bodybuilders typically take periodized training approaches. The body needs active rest and otherwise periods of low-intensity training to allow both recovery and adaptations to manifest. Take this piece of research1 for example, which compared the strength and hypertrophy effects of a continuous training program with a 6 weeks on – 3weeks off training split for 24 total weeks. Each group performed three sets of bench press, three times per week during the training cycle. At the end of the study, each group was measured as having similar gains in both muscle size and strength.

 

Yes, the break society has experienced from gyms has far exceeded 3 weeks, but we know “periodizing” training is worthwhile. Thus, many principles behind periodization are applicable to our current situation. Here, these principles will be used to make recommendations regarding post-quarantine training.

 

Resensitization

 

It has been theorized that muscular tissue, if trained intensely for lengthy periods of time, can become overtrained or “stale.” This occurs when the amount of tissue stress exceeds its ability to recover. As you can imagine, inadequate recovery bodes poorly for muscle size and strength gains. This is why time off can be so beneficial.

 

Though several consecutive months off is not the physiologic ideal, your body is currently primed to make great gains with minimal work. This is the case whether you’ve taken quarantine time completely away from training or you’ve been exercising regularly with subpar equipment like a pair of dumbbells and a resistance band. Once your body experiences heavy training again, it will be overly sensitive to the stimulus, and much work will not be needed.

 

Recommendation: Begin your initial phase of training with low volumes, such as 6-10 sets per muscle group, per week.

 

Training Intensity

 

Appropriately periodized programs vary exercise intensity over time. This is done to prevent both physiologic and psychological burnout. Conversely, working at a low intensity for too long will result in futile efforts at improvement. Most of us have experienced the latter over the past several months. However, that doesn’t mean loading every plate in the gym is wise. In fact, take the opposite approach.

 

Sad as it may seem, what used to be “light weight” may feel a whole lot heavier now. Performing push-ups to failure is a much different demand than a 3RM bench press, and swinging from one end of the loading spectrum to the other may be disadvantageous.

 

There are many factors contributing to the maintenance of muscle mass and strength, but research2 asserts that decreases begin at around 5 weeks of detraining, which is far less time than quarantine has forced folks indoors. Rest assured, strength does return quickly, but attempting to push the same heavy weights you were a few months ago may be both unsuccessful performance-wise and add an increased risk of injury.

 

Recommendation: Programming rep schemes in the 6-20RM range may be best to avoid injury and promote performance.

 

Psychological Relief

 

The best part of returning from any training break is the vigor with which you enter the gym. It just so happens that this break has seemed like a lifetime. There’s something so inherently positive about the verve to workout again.

 

There’s no need to go of the rails, lifting everything in sight or running on each treadmill in the row. Remain somewhat patient so as not to overburden your body, disallowing you to walk the following day. This sets you up for productive training day-after-day, which even after quarantine is the right play.

 

Recommendation: Get excited to train again, but allow yourself to train productively session after session by following the first two recommendations.

 

 

References

  1. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23053130/
  2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23529287/

 

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