Getting Back To Exercise In The New Year
Noticed the number of gym adverts increase recently? Noticed a bit of an upturn in attendance at the gym in the past couple of weeks? A combination of the New Year's Resolution market and December excesses mean this is peak gym membership season. So what are we trying to work against?
Christmas Calories
Some sources estimate that during Christmas Lunch, an 'average' person may consume up to 5,200 calories through starter main course, dessert and drinks. These figures were sourced from a supplements firm, so there is a vested interest here, however the same article suggests this would take jogging 52 miles (i.e. 2 marathons) to burn it all off. Whilst this may not be everyone's preferred option to address the balance, come early January, with the December splurge behind us, it is a good time to start a new regime so that next Christmas we are ready for it!
However the initial push to get the ball rolling can end up with disillusionment, pain and injury or frustration at a lack of progress and subsequent withdrawal from the process. Here are a few easy steps to try to stay on target so that the monthly membership costs aren't going to waste:
Pace yourself
Don't try to burn 5200 calories in one go. It won't work (unless you are going to row the Atlantic in which case that's about a daily energy requirement and a little extreme). Ease into it, consistency is most important and in the early stages you may be better coming out of the gym or finishing your exercise thinking you could have done more. Build it up over a few weeks until you can hit it harder when your body will be better conditioned to the work.
You are where you are
Remember when you used to go to the gym twice a week 6 years ago? Regularly bench pressing 90kg, squatting 60kg and managing an hour on the treadmill? Easy there tiger, that was a little while back. If you are returning to the scene of previous triumphs, take those weights and reps right down. You will get much more getting your technique right on a light weight that you can increase over a few sessions than by jumping back in where you were. You might get away with it for a couple of sessions but your body's powers of recovery will take some honing as well.
Recovery is important
If it's been a while, build up from a couple of sessions per week. Most gains are made when the body is recovering and in the early stages there may be a lot to recover from. If every session feels like torture, give yourself a chance - do your exercise, but drop the weight or reps a little. Focus on technique or something different to what you might normally do. Preparation (warm up, the right food and hydration levels for you, making sure you are doing the best session for you) is important, but recovery (light refuelling, stretching, resting afterwards) is just as vital.
Enjoy it!
It is supposed to be fun! Exercise doesn't have to be about slamming away on the treadmill almost doubled over with exhaustion in a gym full of seemingly uberfit obsessives wondering how on earth Mo Farah does it.
It can be a cycle to the station, restarting some team sport, going for a longer walk with some friends, anything that gets your heart rate up for a prolonged period of time. It is often easier to exercise with someone as you are both doing the same thing and if you aren't feeling it one day, there is the perception you are letting someone else down if you pull out of what you were going to do together. Stick with it, long term it will be worth it!
Forming a habit
Our NoviceRunnerNik has written a blog post about forming a gym habit with some helpful tips which can be applied to other exercise too.
Injured?
If you do pick up an injury, get expert advice - call us for an appointment on 02030 12 12 22. Don’t give up on your hard earned fitness. Read our what to do if you get injured blog post for ways to keep up your morale and keep moving.
Words by Paul Martin.