3 Things To Remember if You Haven’t Exercised for a Long Time

You will never forget many things about the first time you worked out. The pain, the torture, but also the feeling of absolute elation afterward. What happens is that life gets in the way and we end up gradually placing exercise lower down our list of priorities. When the time has come for us to get back on the saddle and start exercising again, we may feel like we can just get back into things quickly. But you could very well be running the risk of an injury. So if you are looking to get back into exercising but it’s been a long time, what do you need to remember?

Check-In With Your Body

It’s so important to make sure that you are fighting fit in a physical sense. This is doubly true if you start running or do any heavy lifting. Take the opportunity to make sure that you are ok to do the things that you really want to do. Because if you have not been in the game for so long, and the reason you stopped exercising was because of an injury, you may think that enough time has passed, so it will be fine. But the injury could very well make an appearance quicker than you think. When it comes to running injuries, a podiatrist can make sure that you are physically capable of doing these things.

Start Slow

It’s vital to remember that when you start exercising it can take some time to get used to a new activity. Even if you’ve done it before, and there is muscle memory in your system, the body can take up to 8 weeks to get used to any form of activity, but it can also take this long to form a habit. This is why it’s so important to start slow. It’s so easy to get swept along, especially when you hear those personal trainers yelling “harder” or “faster!” But you have to step it up gradually. Keep it slow, and stay on the side of caution, because this is the best way to minimize any form of injury. While you may not need to start walking, if you’ve not exercised for some time, always focus on form. Form is the best thing because there are so many people that are focused on reps and these are the people who always end up with an injury. Focus on the form before anything else.

It’s Not About the Number of Repetitions

We can very easily get distracted by the number of reps we think we should complete. But this isn’t an actual sign of strength. It is if you do the form properly, but if you look around any average gym, many people try to contort themselves to get the last few reps. The important thing is to fatigue the muscle properly, and then give yourself adequate time to rest and recover. Rest is the most important part of exercising. And when you start out, you may only be able to go once a week, but this is ideal because you are giving yourself the optimum amount of recovery time.