How I got back into Fitness after a Long Break
It was nearly 8 months ago. I broke my scapula, fractured my shoulder blade, tore my labrum tendon and had some shoulder joint issues.
What happened to cause this?
Falling off the monkey bars doing some bodyweight exercises. Ended up passing out, dropped about 3 feet. Hitting the ground landing on the shoulder blade and neck.
Surgery and physical therapy occurred over the next 4 months, and sitting on my ass for another 4 months figuring out the identity of how to get back the life I once had.
Over the course of the 8 months, seeing my weight go from 175 to 163 to 197 and now back down to 189 is heartbreaking.
It was another heart breaking experience going from running half-marathons every weekend at the lake, lifting weights 3 times a week to sitting on the couch unable to do much work.
Something need to change, as the good habits built up over the past 3 years went down in the drain, simply with an injury.
Here’s are the key steps in getting back into Fitness:
Start Slow and Scale Back Up
The Journey of a 1,000 miles begins with the first steps. Yes a fall back from achieving your Fitness goals is a step-back, but it doesn't mean that you have to instantly quit because of a major or minor set back. It’s a choice to continue fighting when you get back up and I believe that you can do it!
It first starts with getting the body back moving again. The body is a machine and after a injury or a long hiatus it has been sitting them in idle or resting. Starting off slow by walking or by getting the body moving will help get the wheels turning again. This allows you to not feel burnt out or get injured when first starting off.
Often times, when a person makes New Years Resolutions or New Goals for the year to start they get so hard and after it, but after a while they start to taper out and burn out within 2 weeks to a month. Look at all the people who join a Gym membership on New Years with a Resolution to change their body type this year, but end up quitting. They are starting off to hard, too fast and will lead to collapse.
What is hard to build doesn’t come easy. It is easier to scale over a longer period of time, but the progress then is more sustainable to achieve.
Case Study: Boiling Frog Experiment;
Yes it’s gonna sound gross, but this applies to most things in Life. If you wants things to last long then you have to spend time little by little and build up overtime. If you want things quick then they will fall apart quickly.
They did a experiment with putting frogs in boiling water. The first frog they put in the water and the water was roaring hot and boiling. The frog instantly jumped out to save his own Life. On the other hand, they put a frog in room temperature water. They began to heat the water slowly by slowly and eventually the frog got boiled to death in the water…
It’s the same way with our bodies, it takes slow and steady progress allowing for our bodies to take shape and take form eventually getting back to where you want to be.
If You are interested in getting a clear cut workout program and nutrition plan to get you where you want to be physically fit and look in movie star shape
Click Here to Get Started!
Shifting Mindset with Affirmations
We are what we consistently do in life and after a huge hiatus we are moving into a new shift, new habits. It will take overcome resistance in both our minds and our bodies.
To break the resistance we have to set our minds on our intentions by saying affirmations and giving ourselves a new identity.
Start by saying what you want in life and the intention behind it in a positive way. Say I am ________ (desired result) ex. I am healthy, fit and full of energy. I _____ (actions) to get my results because I am _______ (desired result)
ex. I walk 10,000 steps a day to help my mind process ideas and help keep me fit.
Before even thinking of touching weights in the gym, started off with walking and watching the food intake. For the most part, sitting on the couch was the natural habit and watching TV consuming content, but when there was enough energy it was spent trying to move again.
We become what we constantly do so if we are constantly moving around it will become natural to us while if we are sitting around that becomes our new normal.
Walking was a big part of starting small getting the body back moving again. Walking is a low impact exercise which is light on the bottle.
After walking become somewhat manageable and the body felt better and stronger, move on to do body weight exercises.
The body weight exercises started slow and then slowly built up the duration and level of difficulty over time.
Eventually the body weight workouts were only 10 mins went to over to 30–50+ minutes and your body will becoming more toned over time.
Theres millions of videos on YouTube, Find someone you agree with and will motivate you!
At this point, If you feel it’s ready for the next step that is when it is the best time to go to a gym.
A gym does help with motivation because in the environment everyone is working out so if you find that it is motivating to be there then go ahead.
Building on smaller progression leads to more sustainable change and long term change. It is much easier to break things down into bite-size pieces then try to tackle a big project at once.
If you go into something big instantly, this will lead to burnout, exhaustion, injury.
Diet
It is so easy to binge eat sitting around due to mindfulness. Most of the time eating is a very mindless activity that we do not pay attention to leading to excess and over-consumption to take place due to not noticing the action.
Exercise, on the other hand, is a very mindful activity where we have to pay attention to what we are doing or we will get injured. Exercise helps regular hunger by producing Ghrelin the hunger hormone.
It becomes a snowball effect where we aren’t doing anything yet we still need the same amount of food as we are exercising which causes weight gain.
In order to stop this issue of eating the same as before, start by slowly tapper the amount of eating away gradually so that you will not feel starving all the time.
Diet and Exercise compound together to accelerate your fitness goals.
Eat a large protein diet
Protein are the building blocks for muscles, and they help with building blood production especially beef. During my recovery from the surgery, consuming about 1.2 grams x BW of protein which included mainly of beef and lamb (red meats) for blood circulation and production / collagen. Lean meat such as chicken, fish and turkey was eaten to help clean the system and build less inflammation.
Eating vitamins are also important. Vitamins are essential for building the body. It allows for regular hormone function and post surgery recovery. Moving around outside was very minimal, so Vitamin D is essential. It is also good for bone health as well as calcium and zinc.
Meditation and Cold Showers
Cold showers help to preserve the muscle by giving the body shock, allowing it to stimulate the muscle, then preserving the muscle decay over a long extended period of not having the ability to workout.
It had also help produce brown fat, which is metabolic active fat that is easier to burn off.
Cold showers also helps with inflammation from the surgery, where the circulation in the body gets trapped and is unable to be flushed out.
Meditation helps with visualizing the workouts, and helps with the formation of neurons in brain. When working out in the gym, we are making neural connections in our brain and by visualizing, similiar neuron connections are being formed without the body actively going through the motions.
When working out, we’re sending signals in our brain which makes our brain realize that this muscle needs to grow to uphold the load. By doing this mentally, there is a similar effect. We are tapping into the mind, by consciously going through the workouts in our mind.
Meditation also allows for lower stress in the body and allows
Avoiding Alcohol, Drugs, Sugar, Mindless Activities and Sex
All the things mentioned above, are things that help ease the pain, but they also suck out nutrients from bodies. Our goal is to keep our body in good shape, and help it grow back to its original levels.
These things do the complete opposite of nurturing our bodies back to its health, these things make us feel good, but they take away the nutrients we need to grow healthier and stronger.
These things put in a receiving state of mind where we want to consume, but when we avoid these things it will make our minds and bodies in a active state wanting to get back into gear!
