I failed quickly last week

#TrueTalkTuesdays 89

My martial arts return was short lived.

After just one MMA sparring session, despite not taking any damage, I was surprisingly sore. But I was still functional. I then got into the gym to lift weights on June 1st for the first time since the lock down, which for me was March 14th. That was an 11 week long hiatus.

I had worked out using resistance bands during this time, realizing it wasn’t quite the same as doing classic weight training, but I figured it would be something. I did everything to failure as usual, which took much more effort and reps to do with bands. I got creative with the bands, doing exercises with one arm and really stretched them out to maximize the tension.

So I felt pretty good about getting back in the gym and going heavy. I figured I would do a heavy routine as I have been doing so many lighter routines and switch things up.

I was surprised to find that my lifts decreased around 20% from just a few months ago. What was more shocking though, was how I felt the next day – like I have never lifted in my life!

The amount of DOMS, or delay onset muscle soreness, was astounding. I found myself waddling from place to place, as my first day was leg and calf day. The next day was chest, triceps, shoulders, and traps. Similar results with both output and soreness. I decided to give myself a 2 day rest before my next lift, which was back, biceps, and abs. That day went better than the first two. The day after, I did a power day – which was low weight, low reps, and focused on exploding off each rep.

In between, I used every recovery tool I had. From my massage gun, massage chair, Normatec, hot to cold showers, and long walks. These seemed to help a bit, but not enough to make me 100%.

So despite my efforts to speed up recovery, I did not feel like I could train without getting wrecked. I just felt so tight, sore, and stiff, that I feel would have done more harm than good. I had said in my last post I was going to shoot for 3 sessions a week. In reality, I got a whooping 0 sessions last week.

Ugh.

I’m frustrated with myself, but the last thing I want to do is injure myself. So perhaps I have to set my goals even lower (I was thinking 3 was low), and just start with 1 day a week. I think I have another week of getting hit hard with DOMS, before my body gets used to heavy weight training again.

But considering all the crazy stuff going on in the world today, being sore and missing a week of training isn’t the worst thing to happen, LOL.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree?

Comment with your take on this. And if you like this article, please do me a solid and share it with your friends. Thanks!