Five tips for starting training after lockdown

It starts again! The incidences are falling in the cities and districts, and more and more easing is possible. Accordingly, we can slowly start thinking about starting full training again. Workouts in the home office are all well and good, but in the long run they don't bring the training stimulus or the fun that you want. We've prepared five tips to make getting back into functional fitness as easy and enjoyable as possible.

1. Hard work pays off - Not all progress is lost

At the beginning it is important to make a plan. Which skills and which movements could I work on in lockdown? What options did I have at home? How has my gym routine changed? It wouldn't make sense to just start again with the old maximum weights. But we'll get to that.

At the beginning of a new training cycle there is one thing: clarifying the current status. The body quickly gets used to the stress it is used to. So once again it's just the head that plays a trick on us when the first workouts don't go smoothly off the barbell. In any case, the following applies: keep your teeth, set new goals and pull through. Progress makes perfect. And a lockdown more or less doesn't make you directly unsportsmanlike.

2. Start slow, rise up quick - training within your personal limits

The Muscle Memory Effect is our best friend when it comes to resuming a training plan. It means that the body has built its own memory function into the muscles. This means that weights and movements that we have already learned are recalled more easily and in less time than if these skills were learned from scratch.

This is also the reason why we don't have to and shouldn't move maximum loads directly. Even if the first workout after the break heats us up so much - keep calm!

It makes sense to start with a few benchmark workouts to rediscover your personal pacing: Has your strength decreased, has your breath suffered, has your grip become looser? You can build on that!

3. I pack my suitcase and take it with me - the equipment check

Functional fitness not only puts pressure on the body, but also on the accessories. Whether jump ropes, grips or gym bags: Now is the time to stock up! Finally, you have to imagine the load on equipment as follows: on the days when we are after a training session

feel the severest sore muscles, the equipment is also affected. It's just that something like this always catches the eye at the wrong moments, for example during the first internal boxing competition. The workout: pull ups, pull ups, pull ups. For a change, a few toes to bar are interspersed. The result: In the middle of the workout, the grips tear open and are no longer usable. Shortly thereafter, the hands also tear, the workout is over.

So we recommend, according to the functional principle: Prepare for the unkown. Not only the body, but also the equipment has to be dusted, derusted and brought into shape after the lockdown!

4. Diet, sleep and more: get back into a routine

We all know the principle of summer diets, six-packs in 10 weeks, etc. Normally, the motivation for sport and a healthy lifestyle begins to grow again with the first rays of sunshine. But after weeks of lockdown, in which the couch becomes a bed, living room and

has become a workplace in one, it is difficult for motivation and routine to build up again by themselves. But we say clearly: Get to the bacon! The experience that you have been able to accumulate over the past few years helps here: The supplements that were previously useful (basics such as whey, vitamin D or melatonin, for example) can help to reintroduce a fixed daily routine.

After all, if you are rested and want to slip back into old, pre-lockdown patterns on the basis of a clean diet, it is easier.

5. Community, community, community - A fit network motivates

We've been alone long enough! Even if social distancing, contact reduction and hygiene remain important, humans are herd animals. Whether it’s a class workout in the box or a zoom session: We all have to at least partially rebuild our habits for this summer, work on old PR weights again and get used to smoothies again from chocolate bars. Talking about it helps. Exchange and a healthy amount of comparison are good for rediscovering oneself.

In summary, just get started! No matter from where, no matter under what conditions: A new start brings new opportunities. In addition, we can all start exactly where we want: with new equipment, new apparel and new goals. Let's go!