I’m In the Worst Shape of My Life…
We’re all having a tough time getting in our normal doses of physical activity. For me, COVID forced me out of my typically active routine, into a much more sedentary schedule. Instead of my typical schedule of gym, swim, water polo, golf, cycling, I was downgraded to the odd run, and intermittent, uninspired home exercise routines. I thrive off of routine, and this global pandemic shook that up.
By now, I’m sure you’ve adjusted your exercise routine into something safe and appropriate given the continued pressure on physical distancing during this pandemic. I had started to find some kind of “new normal” routine as well, I was back to swimming, biking to work, and doing some workouts at home.And then this happened…
So for the past month, my already degraded physical conditioning has depreciated as I have been recovering from a car accident.
I didn’t intend to write this post to simply whine about how much I’ve lost. It’s more about how I can move forward, and hopefully you can learn a few things from my efforts along the way...
First, and most important is for us to appreciate two important things:
If you don’t use it, you will lose it. Exercise is not like money, you can’t bank the hard work you put in 6 months ago and cash out on earned interest later. Our bodies are horribly efficient and will redirect precious resources away from systems that keep you strong and resilient to physical stresses.
Your body will adapt to the stresses you put on it. We are amazing biological creatures and we have the most amazing ability to adapt to the physical stresses placed on us. If we do this right, we gain strength and resiliency.
Sounds simple, but why do so many people go wrong with this? I think ego and lack of knowledge are the two main reasons. I think people, particularly athletes (read: aging masters athletes), tend to overestimate their conditioning, or lack thereof, and it's a recipe for injury.
I wish it were as simple as taking a few months off of lifting weights, and exercise and we could jump back in to where we started, but it just isn’t the case.
Here are some take home messages that I AM GOING TO FOCUS on during my rehabilitation from the accident, and returning to sports and conditioning.
Warm Up: My warm up needs to be about 25% of my work out
Go Light: I need to check my ego at the door, and start my workouts at an intensity way below what I was doing pre-covid and pre-car accident. For example, I might start with weights at 50 or even 75% of the weight that I was using previously.
Slow Down: I’m going to progress slowly - the older I get the slower it seems I can adapt. I know it will happen, I just need to give myself more time. Gone is the era where I’d be adding 5-10 lbs each week!
We can do this guys!