Coming back off an extended gap in your fitness journey can quite possibly be one of the most difficult things to do. Especially if that hiatus is due to illness or having to care for someone who’s ill. You been drained physically and you’ve exhausted your emotional reservoirs to the point where you say, “I just don’t have it in me anymore.” This is particularly true after you’ve hit sixty.
In college, maybe you tear an ACL or break a bone and are required to abstain from physical activity for a prolonged period of time. It’s hard to jump back in but the atrophy and loss of stamina and strength are no where close to what happens to a sixty, seventy or eighty year old. Case in point, my near 80 year old friend and fellow gym rat had his hip replaced. Surgery went smoothly and recovery with all the trips to rehab carried on for weeks.
He surprised me in the gym one day and we spent a couple minutes catching up. Finally, he lamented that his stamina and strength just wasn’t anywhere close to where they’d been before the surgery. It made me sad and I tried my best to encourage him that now was more important than ever to get after it and build it all back.
That’s where I found myself, today. Headed back to the gym after an extended break taking care of a sick family member. Even if I didn’t want to, I knew I had to. It felt great!
Compound Routine #1 x4 sets: barbell bench press, dips, dumbbell flies and Russian twists.
Compound Routine #2 x3 sets: incline dumbbell press, dumbbell pullovers, tricep push downs, skull crushers, crunches.
10 minutes on the stair climber machine.