Basic Pursuits

We all go through phases in our lives that prevent us from training on a consistent basis. However, the main problem is that
we sometimes try to make up for the lost time and create some training
program that has us do the same or more amount of work from where we
left off. Just like everything else in life, you can't start where you
left off. You have to go back and retrain your muscles to slowly get
back into the groove of training.


I learned this lesson the hard way when after going to India for 3 months, I had lost 10 pounds of a combination of muscle and fat and could barely pump
out 20 pushups. I declined to listen to my body and started going to
the Karate dojo almost immediately. People complimented me on my weight
loss. It made me feel good, but the truth was that I noticed how slow
and weak I had become compared to when I left for India.


Due to India's environment and the fact that I was staying with my
relatives, I had been eating very little in the way of protein or
calories, and was performing a few hindu pushups and squats daily.
Without an airconditioner, I was forced to workout in my Uncle's humid
living room. This basically made me quite training after the first week.

Training Too Hard

After 3 months of no actual lifting and undereating, you'd think I'd
want to take it easy and builld up myeating habits again. Well, that's
not what happened. I doubled up on the Karate to make up for lost time.
From 2-3 days a week, to 3-4 daysa week. I also started running in the
morning again, and performedcalisthenics everyday. After the first week
my body crashed and I got a fever which lasted two days. I lost more
weight and was forced to listen to my mother about how bad exercise was for your body.


Hopefully this little story will explain how important it is to ease
into a diet and training program after a layoff. When you come back to
training, go back to your last week of workouts and do exactly half of
what you did. For example, if your last workout looked something like
this:

3 rounds for time:

10 Burpees


5 KB Swings

Then do 3 rounds of 5 burpees and 3 KB Swings. It may seem easy at first, but your body will thank you for the slow down.

Ease into dieting


For dieting, try to calculate how many overall calories you were eating
while not training, and compare it to how many you were eating while
training. For example, if you were consuming 2000 calories while
training, and 1500 while not training, then your starting point should
be somewhere in between. First strive to get that number up to 1800,
then slow it down even further until your back up to 2000 calories.


All in all, your "getting back" program should take you a good month,
depending on how long you took off. Think for every month you took off,
it'll take you one week to get back in. So for a 3-month lay off, allow
3 weeks to get back into the groove.

About the Author

Parth Shah is a Strength Consultant based in New Hyde Park, New York and can be found at his website, ShahTraining.com