How to smash your first session back in the gym!

If you've spent your summer drinking pina coladas on a beach somewhere, firstly lucky you...but now that you are back in not so sunny Bristol, if the thought of exercise and heading back to the gym is giving you chills, then you're not alone.

Let's be honest, if you've taken an extended period off of exercise, the first session back probably won't be amazing but that's okay...The key is approaching this session appropriately so it leaves you energized rather than down and too sore to move!

Here are our top 3 tips on exactly how to do that!

1) Do something you enjoy!

This is an easy first step! It's your first session back, be kind to yourself and do what you want to do, not what you necessarily feel like you have to do! If you really want to do a leg session then fine but if actually, you'd rather just go for a run on the treadmill or attend one of our classes then do that (check out our class guide here).

This session is all about easing yourself back in and getting the wheels rolling rather than making up for lost time!

2) Keep it short!

45-60mins at the very most! Let's think about this, if you've not lifted any weights or done any cardio for a while, your body will be relatively deconditioned to what you were doing in the gym beforehand. So coming in and hitting a 90 minute gym session because "that's what you did before" is just a bit silly and unnecessary. Most likely, you'll overdo it and leave yourself so sore that your sessions in the days after will be much less effective, if they happen at all!

Again, give your body the chance to catch up after the time off!

3) And lastly - adjust your expectations for the session!

Let's be honest, you will have likely lost strength, fitness or put on a bit of weight and that's absolutely fine. If you can accept that and realise that that is not permanent, not only will you be in a much better place mentally after the session, you will also be better equipped to make progress over the next few weeks. This is because you won't feel the same need to overdo it and instead you'll enjoy all of those amazing endorphins that you missed during your time off!

...and now all that's left to do is to do it...You got this!