How to train after a bodybuilding break. Workout after a long break. muscle memory. How it works

Sometimes a situation arises when an athlete is forced to stop training for a long time - several weeks or more. This may be due to personal circumstances, trauma, or simply a period of vacation. It seems that it is easy to return to classes, because there is a well-established training scheme, an established set of exercises. However, after a long break, you can not engage in the same program. What is the reason for this and how to catch up?

The return of an experienced athlete to the gym after a long absence can be compared to the arrival of a newcomer. Both of them are low level physical training. The difference is that an experienced athlete already knows what to do and how to do it. But this knowledge can play a cruel joke with him. For example, before the break, he effortlessly pressed 110 kg lying down, however, when he returned, he could barely cope with 100 kg. Angry at himself, the athlete begins to train with redoubled zeal, wanting to return to his previous form as soon as possible. But by doing so, it overloads weakened muscles, can injure the body, and as a result, the result drops to 80 kg.

Using the example of this athlete, let's look at the main mistakes that arise in such situations, as well as the principles that should guide those who intend to return to the gym.

note When returning to the gym after a long break, the load should be increased by approximately 10% per month.

The desire to return to the previous rhythm of classes is commendable. But if you do not want to harm the body or even get injured, moderate your ardor and consider a systematic return to the previous level.

Firstly, forget about 3-4 workouts per week. For the first 2-3 months, the representatives of the stronger sex should be engaged in the gym no more than 2 times a week, girls can even limit themselves to 1 time. If you're itching to start training more frequently, check with a qualified instructor.

Secondly, start each workout with a short one. During the break, the ligaments lost their former elasticity, and the joints lost their mobility. Warming up will help prepare them for the next load. The lesson itself should not exceed 60 minutes.

Third, perform exercises for all muscle groups, without pumping certain ones. The ideal option is 1 exercise for each group: chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps, legs. At the same time, do not work "for wear and tear", leave strength in reserve. If you feel like you can do 10 sets, stop at 8. Thus, all muscles will receive a load, but not excessive.

By the way, returning to the gym after a long break is a great chance to rethink your training program. Let's say you didn't change your technique before, because that would mean taking a step back, reducing the weights. But since you still have to start practicing with smaller loads, you can start mastering new exercises. However, remember: to invent yourself new program it’s not worth it, only .

Training program after the break

With a significant body detraining, you can be guided by this set of exercises (during the first 3 weeks, if you go to the gym no more than 1-2 times).

Leg extension in the simulator.
Leg press in the simulator.
Reduction of legs in the simulator.
Breeding legs in the simulator.
Twisting with bent knees.
Lateral twist.
Lifting the knees in emphasis.
Biceps with dumbbells standing.
Dumbbell bench press at an angle.
Information of hands in the simulator.
Breeding dumbbells standing.
Thrust to the chest on the upper block.
Horizontal thrust in a block simulator.
Triceps on the block down.
Hyperextension.
Lunges.
Deadlift on straight legs with a barbell.
Lying leg bending.
Calf (rise on toes).

All exercises should be performed in 1-2 sets of 10-15 repetitions, depending on the degree of muscle detraining.

For men gaining muscle mass the following exercise program may be recommended:

Leg extension in the simulator.
Hand reduction in the simulator ("Butterfly").
Raising the legs in an emphasis.

Exercises should be performed in 2 sets of 10-15 repetitions.

Usually, it takes half the time that the break was to restore form. That is, if you have not been engaged in six months, then it will take you about 3 months to return to your previous form. With a competent approach to the recovery period, you will catch up quickly and without risk to health.

Whichever program you choose, you should always discuss it with professional trainer, which will compare the level of your physical fitness and feasible load. You can get fitness advice from instructors. Coaches of Gold’s Gym fitness centers are certified specialists, candidates and masters of sports, members of the FPA Fitness Professionals Association, winners of various championships.

All athletes are afraid of losing sportswear in case of injury, while resting, 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 so much, and when you recover, you will be stronger.

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

Consequences of not exercising for 2 to 4 weeks.

The volume of oxygen consumption (VO2max) - decreases by 4-14%

Blood volume - reduced by 5-10%

Pulse at rest - increases by 5-10%

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

Minute volume of the heart - decreases by 8-10%

Lactate threshold - reduced by 4-17%

Muscle glycogen levels - reduced by 20-40%

Fat - increases by 0-4%

Muscle strength - does not change

The number of slow muscle fibers - does not change

General stamina - reduced by 5-20%

The cardiovascular system,

Crucial for endurance athletes will be the first to be affected. The main reason for this is a decrease in blood volume. And while your heart rate will increase with the workouts you do, it won't be enough. The overall performance of the cardiovascular system will decrease, and the volume of oxygen consumption (VO2max) - probably the most important measure of endurance - will also decrease. Numerous studies have shown that VO2max in well-trained athletes drops almost linearly by 4% in the first week or two and down to about 20% after 8 weeks. After that, VO2max stabilizes at a low level, which is still usually higher than in people with a sedentary lifestyle.

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 the metabolism from two sides. On the one hand, the body cannot convert glucose to glycogen as efficiently, as 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 not training reverses this process, and more glycogen is burned during exercise, and you get tired faster.

Good news

Muscles take longer to regress. Capillarization - the process of covering the muscle with capillaries for better oxygen supply, and, consequently, for greater performance under stress, 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 to start turning slow muscle fibers, so important for endurance athletes, into fast ones. Studies also show that strength qualities are mostly maintained for about four weeks in the absence of training.

And yet, in general, performance no doubt drops quite quickly. Studies examining fatigue time have shown an overall performance drop of 9.2% after 2 weeks of inactivity, and a 21% and 23.8% drop after 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 being left without training for a longer time afterwards.

Previous level of training

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

Intensity

The most successful weapon in the fight against loss of form. Maintaining intensity is a key factor in maintaining physiological changes and performance during periods of reduced training, training volume can be reduced by 60-90% without drastic consequences. So, if you want to take a break from your core hard training, a few weeks of reduced mileage won't hurt as long as you're doing high-intensity training to make up for it. You won't gain much, but you won't lose too much either, and this can set you up for another cycle of hard work that can bring more results. When reducing volumes, you should take care not to reduce the frequency of training by more than 20-30%.

Shape recovery plan

Requires little change from normal training plan. Since the strength of the muscles decreases more slowly than the preparation of the cardiovascular system and the metabolic system, it is the latter that need to be loaded in the first place. According to Norwegian researchers, the fastest way to improve VO2max and overall endurance is to perform short bursts of high-intensity work at a speed far faster than your normal work rate, but not fast enough to exhaust you for your next workout. Thus, most of the weekly training can be more intense than measured driving. Training volume is not a substitute for intensity.

In the first week of recovery training, you should complete no more than 30% of your usual weekly volume. The intensity is distributed as follows: 55% quiet, 40% intensive work and 5% strength. Note that any previous injury must be completely healed so that intensive work does not aggravate it. Naturally, if the nature of the injury is such that only quiet work is possible, then that is the only thing you should be doing. share intense training high from the very beginning, the degree of intensity is important, the work should not be done in full force, otherwise complete exhaustion will occur and the chance of getting injured again will increase. The recovery period is proportional to the downtime period. Weekly, the volume increases linearly, the ratio of intense and calm training changes proportionally.

This plan is well suited to those who are recovering from an injury in the middle of the season and are aimed at getting back in shape as soon as possible. Individual items can be changed if whole months remain before the start of the competition, in which case you can first include in the schedule large quantity quiet work. In any case, a reasonable approach to the resumption of training brings great results.

Article last updated: 08/30/2014

Quite often we are faced with such a global problem as the start of training after a long break. I think everyone has had such a situation when it’s simply not realistic to allocate even 40-45 minutes of time for training. There are a lot of reasons for this: the county, got sick, problems, family, injuries, etc. In the summer time, most people simply give up training and go to the seas. Of course, in the summer, if you don’t know, you can simply harm yourself. Sometimes this break is forced, because, as everyone knows, you should take a short break, giving your body a little rest. So, how to start exercising after a long break?! In such situations, sometimes even an experienced athlete makes a lot of mistakes, trying to regain his former shape. After a long break, your body, muscles are no longer in the shape they were before, so you should not immediately load yourself to failure. You should gradually increase the load, starting with a small one. General rules to be followed by everyone:

1. After a long break, you are full of energy, but you should not immediately expose yourself to heavy loads. You need to approach this gradually, week by week.

2. In the first weeks of training, you should build your training program so that it looks more like a beginner's program. Fulfill more exercise while reducing the number of approaches to

3. This scheme will give you a positive result, as you will be able to work through maximum amount muscle groups and tone them up. In one workout, 3 muscle groups should be trained. 3. No need to hang up immediately big weights. Choose the right working weight and the right number of repetitions. The most optimal amount will be 6-12 in one approach.

4. The first 2-3 weeks, do not exhaust yourself with training. You don't have to go all the way. This will help you avoid week-long krepatura. Muscle pain is not always a good sign that you've had a great workout. You are now in recovery and you will not set records, but only harm yourself.

5. Of course, you should include basic exercises in your workout.

6. Before each workout, you should perform a general warm-up. It should be done for about 10-15 minutes before the start of classes. This will help warm up your muscles and avoid injury.

7. Do not immediately include in your diet, especially pharmacology. Give your body 1-3 months to adapt.

The recovery period depends on the length of your break. For example, if you had a break of 3 months, the duration of your recovery may be about 1-1.5 months. After the recovery period, you can switch to the previous one, everyone has their own, who wants to try something new, please:.

I hope you found the article helpful. If so, please leave a comment and share the article on social networks. Thank you for your attention!

After a long break. Now, in order not to break loose and not give up this venture, you need a plan that will help you adapt physically and mentally!

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. The good news is that in any case, you can return to the previous level and become stronger, faster and more resilient. The main thing is to do it right to avoid injury.

Termination of training or the use of loads that are not capable of maintaining the achieved level leads to deadaptation - a process that is the opposite of adaptation.

Deadadaptation is a remarkable ability of the body to use the released resources in other body systems. That is, resources are taken from where they are no longer used, to where the building material is needed.

How did the break affect your fitness?

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

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

The new training plan will depend on why you quit exercising and what happened to your body in the meantime.

If you had to stop because of an 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 general condition of your muscles, point out imbalances and identify weaknesses.

If the break was taken due to the appearance in the family or a busy work schedule (you gave all the time to a new project), you need to understand how you can find time for proper sleep and nutrition so that there are no psychological and physical problems in the future.

Recovery rate

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

But what if you haven't exercised in a year or more? If you went to Gym, Thompson advises to start with half or a third of the weight that you took a year ago, and after a few weeks try your standard kilograms. Recovery usually takes 1-2 months.

As for sports that require endurance (cycling, triathlon, and so on), 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 form, then you need to reconsider training program, and even better - to find good coach who will compile it for you, based on your physical state and opportunities.

What to do if you have to take a break again

Things happen in life and we can't guarantee we'll never take that big 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, it is now possible to find with a huge number short workouts, both power and interval. And if you can arrange such mini-workouts for yourself, then it will be much easier for you to return to your previous physical form. Yes, and psychological adaptation will be easier than if you completely give up sports.

With training in the amount of 25-30% of the previous ones, you will be able to maintain your shape for two to three months.

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

Moving, job change, injury, illness, banal session)) and much more can put us in front of the need to “tie up” with training. What happens to the body?! Answer In the same article, I will tell you how to train after a break, so as not to harm and get benefits.

After the break, as in the photo above, it’s definitely impossible)))

After a short break in training, your training scheme, exercises, number of sets, etc. may remain unchanged (depends individually), I talked about this in more detail in the main article: “How often do you need to change training programs” and further on in the article.

This, in fact, is not as important as the progression of the load (working weights, weights) in the exercises.

It is very important to start training not at the limit of your capabilities.

Many people don't know this! As a result, upon returning to training after a break (it doesn’t matter if it’s 1 week or 2 or a month of absence), they immediately begin to train as before (with the same working weights, in the same number of exercises, approaches, etc.) .

Here, for example, an eccentric bench pressed 100 kg, missed 2-3 weeks of training, returned and again from the very first workout began to press those same 100 kg (his maximum).

Or another example: a person did not study at all for 3 months or more. I came to the gym, and immediately let's do this, a bunch of exercises per workout (as before, well, for example 6-8), immediately trying to work with the same weights as before (well, for example, the same 100 kg bench press to the maximum, etc.). etc.), 4-5 approaches each (as before) ... not realizing that this is the case - in no case should you do it, because this is wrong / unacceptable.

The fact is that after any break in training = any load (even the lightest one), this is stress for your body (body). And so, imagine, you didn’t exercise for a week or two, maybe more (the more = the worse), came to the gym and immediately took your 100% weight, well, what do you think, what is the body like?

Yes, she's in shock! For him, this is a monstrous EXCESSIVE stress that only hurts. That is why training should begin with a gradual increase in training volume (not at the limit of your capabilities).

If the break was too long (a month, two and off we go, the more = the worse), and you work to the maximum from the first day, then most likely you will have overtraining right during the workout (you will immediately feel sweat, dizziness , nausea, etc.. Do you need it? =)

CONCLUSION: training after any break should not be at the limit of their capabilities.

This is firstly, and secondly, in addition to harming yourself, you also deprive yourself of the possibility of a regular progression of loads, without which muscle growth is basically impossible.

This is generally a sore subject! In bodybuilding, who is not yet in the know, what is important is constant progression (even if it is very meager, even insignificant, but it should be), and not MAXIMUM at a time. Do you understand?

The progression of the load should be IN PRINCIPLE! And not immediately the maximum at a time ...

This means that it will be much more effective to increase working weights in exercises from one workout to another for months than to take and pile on the maximum in one workout ....

P.s. I have already talked about this a hundred times, apparently many still do not reach))).

By how much should the load be reduced?

Depends on the duration of the break.

The guideline is as follows: weights 60% of the maximum if the break was 1 week, 50% of the max if 2 weeks; 30% of max. if longer than 2 weeks (up to a month); If the break was generally long (for example, 2-5 months or more), then the training volume should be reduced TOTAL, and not just working weights.

I mean, and the number of workouts, and the number of exercises, and the number of approaches and working weights. Those. from 2 (max 3 workouts per week), p.s. usually this is how the majority trains, but there are also those who every day (recommendation for them), from 2-3 exercises (up to 5-6 regular ones) per workout, 2 sets in each (up to 4-5 regular ones) , with 30% weights from max (to maximum), for example, if you benched 100 kg (this is your maximum), then after a break, you will need to start benching no more than 40 kg. And gradually, increase, from workout to workout, that is: 40 kg in one workout, 43 kg in another, 45 kg in the third, 48 kg, 50 kg, 55 kg and off we go. Do you understand? It is very important. This is the whole point.

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO COME AND TRAIN TO THE MAXIMUM IMMEDIATELY. It won't do any good, only harm. This is an extremely important aspect. In general, remember:

Training after any break - you need to start with a gradual increase in training volume (i.e. work not at the limit of your capabilities).

Sincerely, administrator.