How to recover after a long break from training. Training after a break: where to start and how to get back in shape. Training program after a long break

How to start playing sports after a long break is one of the most frequently asked questions among former athletes. Not everyone knows how to start playing sports after a long break; they encounter some difficulties and quit again, thereby further aggravating their situation. It is very difficult to return to your previous form after starting after a break. But very often people want to achieve this very quickly, which often leads to injury and overtraining. There is no need to strive for instant receipt desired result, don't forget about rest.

How to start playing sports after a long break - recommendations from experts

Steps to regaining your training intensity

If a break from training lasts more than a few weeks, the body loses significant strength. This must be taken into account when resuming training. On average, after 2 weeks of a break a person loses approximately 40% of his previous level of strength. Without load, the body's functioning changes significantly, and strength decreases at an incredible rate. This affects your overall strength level, not just your maximum performance.

That's why, when you start exercising after a long break, you come to the gym weaker than they were before. Recovery will be much longer and more painful. To properly return to training, you need to follow a few simple steps:

• focus on the main thing;
• find a source of inspiration;
• get involved in training;
• do not hurry;
• write down goals and celebrate their completion;
• do not give up;
• get support;
• praise yourself.

In order to to start playing sports after a long break, you need to clearly know what you want to achieve, and how to get it. The body's strength is not endless, and therefore you need to find someone who will help you in training and support you, as well as encourage you by example. Don't be in a rush to change everything in an instant, even if you're eager to jump right back into intense activities after a long break.

How to start training correctly after a long break

To resume training and return to the gym, a glance in the mirror is usually enough, in which the reflection is not at all toned body and shortness of breath after running up several floors of stairs. After that, you immediately remember the gym. It is impossible to instantly return to the original form, and 3-4 workouts a week are not yet available to you, otherwise you will only hurt yourself. It is best to start training after a long break by visiting the gym twice a week, with an equal period of time. This way, you will remind your muscles of the load and give them the opportunity to adapt to new efforts.

And only after 3-4 months of training twice a week, you can insert another workout into your schedule. While training more effort It is worth focusing on basic exercises that affect a larger volume of muscles and help restore muscle memory. In the question of how to start playing sports after a long break, it is also worth addressing the question proper nutrition and rest. The vital activity of the body changes, and this leads to an increase in the need for nutrients. And remember, the longer you delay the moment of resumption, the more difficult it will be to do so.

After a long break. Now, in order not to break down and quit this idea, you need a plan that will help you adapt physically and psychologically!

Walter Thompson, an exercise physiologist at the University of Georgia, studied what happens to the body during a break and what to expect when you decide to start exercising again. Good news is that in any case you will be able to return to your previous level and become stronger, faster and more resilient. The main thing is to do it correctly to avoid injury.

Stopping training or using loads that are not capable of maintaining the achieved level leads to deadaptation - a process inverse to adaptation.

Deadaptation is the body’s remarkable ability to use released resources in other body systems. That is, resources are taken from where they are no longer used, to where construction material more necessary.

How did the break affect your fitness?

There are no formulas that would allow you to calculate exactly how much you have lost and how long it will take you to recover, but there are studies based on which you can at least get an idea of ​​the general picture.

• If your break was several weeks, your respiratory and cardiovascular systems will lose a few points, while your strength will remain unchanged.
• If the break was a year, but before that you were in good physical shape, cardio exercise will be 15% more difficult for you, power characteristics will fall by at least half.
• If your break was measured in years, most likely you will have to start from scratch. But you will make progress faster than people who did not exercise at all.

Your new workout plan will depend on why you quit and what happened to your body during that time.

If you had to stop due to injury, you must be sure that you have fully recovered. Therefore, you must definitely visit a doctor. A physical therapist will be able to tell you about the overall health of your muscles, point out imbalances and identify weaknesses.

If the break was taken due to a new family or a busy work schedule (you devoted all your time to a new project), you need to understand how you can find time for proper sleep and nutrition so that psychological and physical problems do not arise in the future.

Recovery speed

If your break was only a few weeks (holidays or vacation), just a couple of light workouts will be enough to recover and you will be back in shape.

But what if you haven’t worked out for a year or more? If you've been going to the gym, Thompson recommends starting with half or a third of the weight you were lifting a year ago, and after a few weeks, try your standard pounds. Recovery usually takes 1–2 months.

As for sports that require endurance (cycling, triathlon, etc.), the intensity will also have to be reduced. In this case, Thompson advises starting with long walks, then moving on to interval running with walking breaks or running at a very low pace. The distance in this case does not matter.

If after two months you have not returned to your previous shape, then you need to reconsider your training program, or even better, find good coach, who will compile it for you, based on your physical condition and capabilities.

What to do if you have to take a break again

Things happen in life, and we cannot guarantee that we will never take such a long break again. The main rule is not to give up physical activity fully. Let it be walks or light workouts for 10-15 minutes a day, but they must be in your schedule!

Fortunately, you can now find a huge amount short workouts, both strength and interval. And if you can arrange such mini-trainings for yourself, then return to your previous physical fitness it will be much easier for you. And psychological adaptation will be easier than if you completely give up sports.

By training at 25–30% of your previous levels, you can maintain your shape for two to three months.

On average, the adaptation time after reduced physical activity (you left and did not have the opportunity to train fully) is 2 weeks.

The basic rule is that starting training after a long break should be low-intensity. There is no need to rush to your favorite exercise equipment and work until.

The process of restoring strength after a long break should proceed smoothly - haste in this matter can lead to overtraining, injuries, and a new round of forced stoppages following them.

Training in the gym after a long break must necessarily include, in addition to the main part, a warm-up and a cool-down, where it is necessary to perform flexibility exercises, well stretching and warming up the muscles that will participate in the exercises.

This approach is also another prevention of various injuries. The training program after the break is designed in such a way that the emphasis will be on the muscles of the legs and chest.

To build mass and develop strength, you must first use basic exercises, which form the basis of the training complex.

This program involves performing barbell squats and bench presses. It is these basic exercises that will allow the body to systematically adapt to stress loads.

From powerlifting deadlift with a barbell is considered the most difficult exercise- requires preparedness of joints and tendons, ideal technique, therefore the training program after the break does not have this exercise in its arsenal.

To develop the target muscle group in plyometric mode, deadlifts are replaced with chest lifts (from knee level).

Workouts in gym after a break, you need to start with light weights. When working in this mode, first of all, you need to pay attention to the technique of performing the exercises.

Therefore, the first workout after a break should proceed in this spirit: each exercise is done slowly, under control, all movements are performed at a reduced pace.

Small working weights will again allow you to develop a dynamic stereotype, which plays a very important role when working with extreme loads. Performing the negative phase of each exercise at a slow pace also helps build muscle mass, so don’t rush to increase the load; you can also benefit from a small working weight in the exercises.

In many ways, a positive result will be facilitated by psychological attitude athlete - you should not perceive the period of return to training as a regressive phenomenon.

Use this time to learn new things strength exercises, hone your technique, re-work problem areas. The resumption of training after a break will also be facilitated by actively occurring psychophysiological changes; as a rule, the beneficial effects of sports on the body are felt: the emotional background is improved, appetite improves, and a colossal amount of energy is released due to the activation of lipolysis processes.

In the future, it is recommended to practice periodization of progress, that is, increase working weights from workout to workout. Increasing dynamics should be present until the moment of returning to previous strength indicators.

The duration of the recovery phase is determined by the duration of the break in training and is half of this period.

I think that each of you, for some reason, was forced to do break in training process . For example, during vacation, as well as for reasons injuries or illness. But sooner or later you need to return to training. Almost every athlete after a break strives to get to his previous strength indicators it ends too quickly overtraining or injuries. The question is how to do this correctly?

What happens to the body after a break

Regardless of the reasons, if the break lasted more than two weeks, you need to know what is happening to your body during this time. When there is no load, his work changes, and these changes must be taken into account when resuming training. As sad as it may be, power is decreasing at a catastrophic rate.

The level of strength loss different people different, but on average it is 40% after two weeks. Not only do maximum performance in some movements drop, but the overall level of strength decreases. Therefore, you return to the gym much weaker than before, and cannot train with the same intensity as before the break. Recovery is much slower and muscle pain lasts longer.

In many ways, your physical condition is very similar to when you first started training. The main difference is that you know what to do and how to do it. But even so, some people take much bigger steps than when they first came to the gym. If your main lift scores were quite high before the break, you are very concerned about how to get there faster. For example, someone who has been bench pressing 160kg for a whole year will be very upset to find out that after a break he can only bench press 150kg. He simply cannot accept this and rushes into training like crazy, doing too much. He will overtrain, but he will be adamant. Finally, shoulder pain will force him to stop pressing for another two weeks, and the result will drop to 130 kg.

Our body is a balanced, well-coordinated mechanism that constantly strives to save energy to maintain vital functions. Through training we develop muscle mass, which means exactly muscle becomes the most energy-consuming organ of our body. During a break from exercise, the body tends to reduce the amount energy consumed by the muscles. Gradually decreases endurance our body, then begins to decrease muscle mass due to lack of energy, at the last stage the level of power potential begins to decrease.

Many are sure that a great loss of shape can only happen to those who were irresponsible in their training, ate the wrong way, and the like. But in fact, even a competently trained bodybuilder who took a responsible approach to the issue of nutrition can lose on average 40-60% of those during a year's break. physical qualities which I was able to acquire thanks to training. Of course, in about 2-3 months, a bodybuilder can return to his previous shape, but this will only happen at a young age. For a 40-year-old athlete, getting back into shape will be a much more difficult and sometimes unattainable task.

Neuromuscular memory

Neuromuscular memory allows the body to restore the body's endurance. Gradually, the body begins to produce the amount of ATP that previously allowed it to train for a long time and achieve good results In sports. At the same time, the body seems to awaken from hibernation and begins to produce an increased amount of energy, all its processes are accelerated, even the number of capillaries increases to improve blood supply to muscle tissue.

Since the muscle tissue now receives plenty of energy and oxygen, recovery mechanisms gradually come into play. After some time, the previously existing muscle mass is completely restored.

conclusions

• Taking time off from training can be very beneficial if you plan your return carefully. Otherwise, you may make life very difficult for yourself.
• When you return to the gym, your body is not ready for hard work to the same extent as before the break. Slow progress allows him to change and adapt. You have to get your routine and diet back on track before your results start to improve.
• Thanks to the break, you have a reserve of energy when you return to the gym. However, it is unwise to dive headfirst into training. Start with the beginner program or something similar. Be patient and reasonable, and always remember to move forward slowly. If you stick to this approach, especially in the first - most important - week, you will begin to smoothly move towards the most high levels physical fitness
• Never be afraid to take a break from training. Consider your body as fireproof capital that you have temporarily frozen in your bank account. Of course, at first you will lose some percentage of your savings, but by returning your capital to circulation, you will restore it completely
• If you already have the opportunity to return to training, do not hesitate and return. Of course, it is best to find yourself a professional trainer who will help you competently return to work and restore your previous shape in a short time

Training program after the break

Course No. 1. This is how you need to train for the first 2 weeks. The workouts follow each other every other day.

Course No. 2. This split system is designed for 3-4 weeks.

All athletes are afraid of losing sports uniform in case of injury, during rest or simply because of laziness. Knowing what to do during this period and how to speed up rehabilitation can significantly reduce losses. Follow our recommendations, and your form will not suffer as much, and when you recover, you will be stronger.

It is generally accepted that loss of shape during a period of inactivity or insufficient training occurs almost instantly, and it takes months to catch up. In fact, everything is more complicated and perhaps not so terrible. You need to clearly understand what is happening to your body.

Consequences of not training for 2 to 4 weeks.

Volume of oxygen consumption (VO2max) - reduced by 4-14%

Blood volume - reduced by 5-10%

Pulse at rest - increases by 5-10%

Stroke volume of the heart - decreases by 6-12%

Minute volume of the heart decreases by 8-10%

Lactate threshold - reduced by 4-17%

Glycogen levels in muscles decrease by 20-40%

Fat - increases by 0-4%

Muscle strength does not change

Number of slow muscle fibers- does not change

Overall endurance - reduced by 5-20%

The cardiovascular system,

Of critical importance in endurance athletes will be affected first. The main reason for this is a decrease in blood volume. And although your heart rate will increase with the workouts you do, it won't be enough. Overall cardiovascular performance will decrease, and oxygen uptake (VO2max) - probably the most important measure of endurance - will also decrease. Numerous studies have shown that VO2max in well-trained athletes falls almost linearly, ranging from 4% in the first week or two to approximately 20% after 8 weeks. After this, VO2max stabilizes at a low level, which is still usually higher than that of people with sedentary life.

Decreased metabolism

can also happen quite quickly. The answer lies in glycogen, which is the main source of “fuel” during exercise. By stopping training, you attack your metabolism from two sides. On the one hand, the body cannot convert glucose into glycogen as efficiently, so researchers have documented a 20% decrease in muscle glycogen concentration after just 4 weeks of inactivity in athletes. On the other hand, training teaches the body to save glycogen by burning fat instead, but refusing to train reverses this process, and during exercise, more glycogen is burned, and you get tired faster.

Good news

The muscles take longer to regress in this way. Capillarization - the process of capillaries covering the muscle to better supply it with oxygen, and, therefore, for greater performance during exercise, does not deteriorate due to a short period of inactivity. Moreover, the distribution of muscle fibers remains unchanged for the first few weeks. It takes 8 weeks for slow twitch muscle fibers, so important for endurance athletes, to begin converting into fast twitch fibers. Research also shows that strength is largely maintained for approximately four weeks in the absence of training.

Still, overall performance undoubtedly drops off quite quickly. Studies examining time to fatigue have shown an overall 9.2% drop in performance after 2 weeks of inactivity, and a 21% and 23.8% drop for 4 and 5 weeks of inactivity, respectively. Therefore, if you feel that you are injured, it is better to immediately take a week off than to continue training, risking subsequently being left without training for a longer time.

Previous level of training

Strongly influences the effect of loss of shape; age and gender do this to a much lesser extent. Research shows that, contrary to expectations, experienced athletes actually lose shape faster than those who have recently started doing their training programs. According to research, the decrease in VO2max in well-trained athletes during a period of inactivity of 2 to 4 weeks is 4-14%, while in less trained athletes it is 3-6%.

Intensity

The most successful weapon in the fight against loss of shape. Maintaining intensity - key factor In maintaining physiological changes and performance during periods of reduced training, training volume can be reduced by 60-90% without severe consequences. So if you want to take a break from the basic hard training, then a few weeks of reduced mileage won't do any harm as long as you keep up the high intensity training to compensate for this. You won't gain much, but you won't lose too much, and it can prepare you for next cycle intensive training that can bring more results. When reducing volume, you should take care not to reduce your training frequency by more than 20-30%.

Get back in shape plan

Requires minor changes compared to normal training plan. Since muscle strength decreases more slowly than the preparation of the cardiovascular and metabolic systems, it is the latter that need stress first. According to Norwegian researchers, the fastest way to improve VO2max and overall endurance is to perform short bursts of intense work at speeds well above your normal work speed, but not fast enough to exhaust you for the next workout. Thus, most weekly training may have greater intensity than a steady ride. Training volume is not a substitute for intensity.

In the first week of recovery training, you should perform no more than 30% of your normal weekly volume. The intensity is distributed in the following way 55% calm, 40% intense work and 5% strength. Please note that any previous injury must be fully healed so that intense work does not aggravate it. Naturally, if the nature of the injury is such that it allows you to do only quiet work, then this is the only thing you should do. Share intensive training high from the very beginning, the degree of intensity is important, the work should not be performed at full strength, otherwise complete exhaustion will occur and the chance of getting injured again will increase. The recovery period is proportional to the downtime period. The volume increases linearly every week, and the ratio of intense and calm training changes proportionally.

This plan is well suited for those recovering from injury mid-season and aiming to get back into shape as quickly as possible. Individual items may be changed if there are months left before the start of the competition, in which case more quiet work can be included in the schedule first. Either way, a smart approach to restarting your workouts will yield great results.