If you have been skipping your workouts at your favorite gym, such as Max Fitness, you should take a balanced approach. On one hand, you shouldn’t be too concerned since breaks can be good for your body. On the other hand, you shouldn’t be too complacent as you can quickly lose your fitness gains.
Breaks Are Good
Your body needs to rest so that it can recover from the stresses brought upon it by exercise. Regular breaks from your workout are then a must, especially when you’ve been training hard. During the breaks, you’re actually helping your body improve its aerobic fitness and muscle strength!
Even your mental fitness will improve with regular breaks. Your mind and body both need rest and recover periods for overall health. You are more likely to achieve optimal performance when your mind has rest periods from obsessing over exercises.
Otherwise, you can suffer from overtraining syndrome. Training too hard for too long can result in fatigue that, in turn, leads to underperformance.
Indeed, there are times when taking a break is a must. These include:
- Muscle soreness 72 hours after a workout
- Sickness
- Fitness progress is stalling
You have to listen to your body since there’s no hard and fast rule about the length of a break. You can take a break for a few days, for example, before returning to full workout mode.
Just be sure to return within two weeks after taking a break. Studies have shown that the body will lose most of its fitness gains after two weeks of relative inactivity.
Also, you shouldn’t take a complete break. You have to engage in light activities, such as long walks, yoga, and leisurely bike rides. Your body still needs the light exercise.
Jump Back Into Exercise Mode
You should also avoid jumping suddenly into your old workout routine, especially after a month off. You have to ease into it and keep these tips in mind:
- Choose lighter weights and shorter cardio exercise times.
- Always warm-up and cool-down.
- Start at a pace that still allows for speaking in short sentences. After a week, you can speed up your exercises.
You should also be easy on yourself. You may want to immediately gain back the fitness losses but this isn’t realistic. Your body will need time to regain its former self but the good news is that it will be a shorter time than when you were first starting.