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Free "Return to Gym"

Plan of Action

Begin a "Return to the Gym" Routine here.

YOU'VE BEEN WARNED: I may end up speaking to you like your dad in this one....

...BUT. Just like being told you can't stay out past midnight as a teenager, you'll come to find this seemingly lame message has your best interest at heart.

"Gee, Brian... What could that message be !?" 🤔

😈

well

When you return to the gym, you must earn the right to train at the level of intensity you were used to before quarantine.

*slowly navigates to close the tab*

The long and short of it is... you risk injury if you return to the gym guns 'ablazin. Unless you've maintained access to heavy gym equipment throughout quarantine, your body has almost certainly gone through a period of detraining.

Detraining (often referred to as ‘reversibility’) reflects the fact that if a training stimulus is insufficient, or removed entirely, then the aspect of physiological conditioning to which it relates begins to decline. [Source]

Sounds logical enough, right? If we decrease the level we're performing exercise, it's reasonable to assume our performance will decrease over time.

It's important to add...

Detraining does not mean muscle loss!

It simply means your muscles, nervous system, and other systems in your body will need to get used to more training stimulus, just like it got used to less training stimulus during quarantine.

Cool. We're on the same page 🤙

Now, we won't leave the "getting used to more training stimulus" process to chance.

Oh no.

We'll have a plan for that. Which comes next.

BUT FIRST... WHAT'S THE GOAL?

Remind our muscles & nervous system what resistance training feels like
Become comfortable with primary, compound movements again (Bench Press, Squat, Deadlift, Overhead Press, etc.)
Build our work capacity back up in a safe and controlled way

As I highlight in the video above, secondary movements and tertiary movements will be performed, but aren't the main focus.

Secondary movements are exercises that support the performance of the primary movement. Tertiary (or accessory) movements are single-joint exercises and the "cherry on top" in your training. Yes... bicep curls.

Your plan of action will change depending on the level of exercise activity you maintained during quarantine. For that reason, we've created plans for 3 different categories of quarantine activity:

Trained Above 50% Intensity
Trained Below 50% Intensity
Did Not Train

"Trained Above 50% Intensity" means you were very committed to your exercise routine during quarantine. Even if you were only performing bodyweight training, you brought the intensity and exerted yourself each week. You trained the same amount of days per week, or close to it.

"Trained Below 50% Intensity" means you were still committed to your exercise routine, but you did not train with intensity for the majority of your workouts. You also trained with about half the frequency than you did before quarantine. (Ex. On average, you trained 2-3 days per week at home when you were training 5-6 days per week in the gym before quarantine.)

"Did Not Train" means you completed an ultramarathon.

🥴derp

...an ultramarathon of running Tiger King back to the start 7 times as you shoved Flamin' Hot White Cheddar Popcorn into your noggin.

I don't even think that's funny so there's no way you do. Anyways. Here are the plans...

Full Body Workouts increasing in volume & intensity each week.