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!