Yesterday, after roughly 3.5 months (thanks to the lockdown) of not going to my public gym i decided to return back as i was bored of performing work outs at home 3 x week using my 15kg and 18kg dumb bells. Over the course of the 3+ months, i also lost a ton of endurance and muscle mass resulting in my body weight dropping down from 95kg to 87kg (i'm a hard gainer/ectomorph).

Muscle memory is quite a fascinating thing - despite not doing any of my favorite compound excercises i.e Bench press, Squats & Deadlifts for awhle, i could still push and pull at around 80 - 90% max load. The only downside is that the post workout DOMS was pretty bad since my body wasn't as fit as it was before and needs time to re-adapt.

In short, for those considering to return back to the gym to retrain, do it but start slow by ensuring you perform your warm up and start off with anywhere between 50% - 60% of your normal weight before gradually increasing your volume after 1 - 2 weeks while your body re-adjusts to your weekly regime. It will take anywhere between 1 - 2 months for you to revert back to your normal pushing/pulling/lifting capacity but it will be well worth it.

Let this be an encouragement to those who are planning to kick start their gym routine again. Happy lifting!

This post has been edited by Kagekiyo: Jul 13 2020, 10:42 AM

It depends strictly on the gym on whether they have strict SOPs to enforce customers to sanitize after usage of the equipment. The rest is on you to decide whether you want to put yourself at risk of exposure.


Happy lifting!

Absolutely. Mastering good form is the best way to prevent injuries and also building self-confidence to lift/push/pull at higher volume.

I'm 34, if it matters. Still fit as a fiddle.

My body fat when i last measured it 3+ months ago was around 25 - 27% as i was midway buking until the lockdown kicked in, then i had to stop and resort to doing home workouts and i lost alot of mass along the way since i'm a hard gainer. Now that i've decided to return back to the gym, i plan to continue with my bulking plan.

Perhaps this science backed up body recomposition videos will help provide you some steer/guidance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4K0s792wA

This post has been edited by Kagekiyo: Jul 18 2020, 12:43 PM