No matter how hard you try to stay committed to your workout routines, a period where you are forced to take a break is inevitable. At any given time, circumstances beyond your control could force you to quit exercising temporarily. Examples of this can include instances when you suffer from an injury or an illness.
In other situations, laziness and vacation plans can also interrupt your exercise routine.
Whatever the case may be, fitness freaks often strive to bounce straight back to the training ground after missing their sets and reps for a while. The big question is now: what happens when you exercise after a long time away from it?
A lot of strange things will happen to your body when you restart your workouts after taking a long break from the gym.
Your body will tend to lose its good condition due to the long period of physical inactivity. Here are some things to expect after an extended break.
Things That Happen To Your Body When You Stop Exercise
During training sessions, your muscle fibers push and pull against one another. This causes your muscles to ache, giving rise to the pains experienced after exercise.
The push and pull motions between fibers leading to muscle tear. The good news is that when a muscle fiber tears, it usually triggers a self-repair and regrows itself bigger and stronger. This is made possible through the creation of denser fibers.
When you take a long break from training, the muscle fibers in your body gradually lose their strength and flexibility. The whole situation works in a similar way to Lamarck's theory of use and disuse of body parts. If you don't actively use part of your body, it will atrophy (weaken).
When you finally return to the gym to restart your training activities, it's advisable to calibrate your workout intensities and start from a low intensity.
Returning to your normal exercise schedule means that you're going to start stressing your muscles again, leading to micro-tears in your muscle fibers. This must happen before your muscle mass will be built up again. Click on additional information to learn how to build muscle mass with anabolic steroids.
What Happens When You Start Exercising Again?
When you start your routine again, you'll be more prone to injuries since the flexibility of your muscles has not been fully restored. The level of synovial fluid (in the joints) reduces when you go into hibernation mode. In turn, this will limit the degree of movement of your joints, further increasing the risk of injuries.
To make sure you restart your routines on a good note, do aerobic warm-up activities to reduce the risk of injuries.
Hopefully, after working out for 3 to 4 weeks, your muscles, as well as your ligaments and tendons, will start to regain their elasticity. Only after that should you think of increasing the intensity of your exercise.
On the cardiovascular system, the blood supply to the skeletal and muscular systems will increase after 2 to 3 weeks when you restart exercising. Your muscles will require more oxygen to function properly.
Overall, doing cardio exercise will significantly boost the efficiency of your circulatory system. Your heart will begin to function at its best since your blood pressure will likely go down to optimal levels.
Conclusion: What Happens When You Exercise After A Long time?
It's always a good thing to return to the gym. Apart from regaining your lost muscle mass, you will also enjoy a positive emotional state. Exercise releases endorphins. These are peptide hormones that reduce anxiety and stress.
But if you approach the restarted routines with extreme workouts, the experience may not be good. You could injure yourself or deal with high levels of lactic acid in your muscles.
To lessen the risks of injuries, start with low-intensity exercises and progress from there. In addition to that, warm-ups should be part and parcel of your daily workout.