Starting Again

The feeling of "starting over" can be tough. It is different than starting anew. When you have not been fit forever and you get back into fitness, it can seem adventurous and exciting (and scary) in a way. That excitement can usually feed your desire to workout for a little while. But when you have made great progress and then take time to maintain or to even take time off (expectedly or not) and you go back to the gym, it can be a bit of a mental and physical battle.

I am going through this right now. After staging and then selling our house and moving, I had a two month period where time to get good structured workouts was sparse. I continued to eat pretty well, but I certainly was not on the solid schedule I try to normally keep.

Then when things settled down, I started back into the workout routine I had from before. But only being two months removed from the best conditioning of my life poses some interesting mental and physical challenges as I get back to work. First, I would not dare go straight back to the weight I was lifting. But I want to! Chances of injury increase because I know where I can and should be and I want to get there quickly. I miss the euphoria of meeting new goals and feeling the energy a good workout gives you. But now I feel like it is starting all over again and I don't want it to.

The important thing to keep in mind is that even though it feels new, you are way ahead of the game. And you have all kinds of new knowledge and experience to leverage from last time. And even though a lot of the original soreness will return, you are off to even better places. After a couple of weeks, it will feel normal again and you will be off to the races.