Is your summer body ready?! It’s been a long few months of lock down due to the pandemic but life is opening back up!
If quarantine season hasn’t been kind to your waist line now is NOT the time to panic! Don’t take extreme (and unhealthy!) measures because they’ll backfire in a jiffy leaving you pouting instead of basking.
Let’s chat about EXERCISE; your body NEEDS to move!
Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes. You’re out of breath already?!
If you look in the mirror and don’t see your summer body you have to be honest. It didn’t go away over night and it won’t come back overnight.
Does your couch have a perfectly shaped tush indent? This year in particular has been rough for many of us; working from home, parents becoming teachers, virtual living! Being confined to your home isn’t fun and it may have shifted some of your habits. For many people it was the ideal environment for becoming more sedentary or even just sitting (or laying on the couch!) more than usual. Exercise is important if you want to be healthy, lose weight, or for anything you can imagine!
Most all activity is great and almost always encouraged but there’s an undeniable difference between a ‘fitness regimen’ and ‘being active at home’. The difference comes from the design! We trainers often say that the work you do in here (the fitness regimen) makes everything out there better! While in quarantine the gym was your home but the fact that specifically designed work gets quicker and better results still remains.
It may have been weeks since you’ve worked out in the gym it’s key to remember that you will NOT start back where you left off! You have to adjust your training regimen to where you are right now and rebuild from that. So many injuries occur from doing too much too quickly. Higher frequency training in lower intensity may serve you better than high intensity right off the bat.
REACCLIMATION. CONSISTENCY. COMPREHENSIVE. PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD.
First get reacclimated to the gym with more frequent, shorter duration, lower intensity visits for the first few weeks. Then build back to your normal consistency of frequency and intensity from there.
A comprehensive plan of action will include weight training, cardio, mobility, and flexibility. Of course, you must mind what you put into your mouth to make it all come together.
Are you general health and fitness? Get to the gym 5 times per week rather than just 3 or 4 and workout for about 30 minutes each session rather than about an hour. Try 2 full body workouts and 3 days of cardio. Or maybe try a little weight training and light cardio on all 5 days. After a couple of weeks, you can work back to your pre-quarantine workout style.
For those used to a 5 day weight training split, you may want to start with a 2 or 3 day split first. Get back to the foundational lifts like pushes, pulls, squats and deadlifts. Use your compound lifts to recondition your body in those movement patterns before chopping up the routine into 5 days again. Jumping right back to the full volume and weights you were pre-quarantine your body may be in pain. Pain isn’t the goal, adaptations are!
Progressive overload is the scientific principle of applying increased stress to force the body to respond. This is not merely just more time on the treadmill or more reps to count on the bench. Progressive overload comes in forms of body control, tempo, overall volume, loads and training disciplines.
You can’t out-exercise bad nutrition! Remember that “diet” is a habitual practice not a fad just till ya fit in that Hawaiian shirt!
The past few months of quarantine and worlds being turned upside down has maybe led to increased consumption of food, highly processed “comfort” foods and alcohol. That in combination with lower activity levels and higher cortisol levels due to stress may have you squeezing a little harder into that bathing suit. Getting summer body ready any year should not be a whole new set of lifestyle practices but a refinement thereof. This pandemic year is no exception!
Soon we’ll all be GREEN and able to enjoy gatherings like pool parties and cookouts!
I can imagine it now; charcoal grill smoke billowing over the trees on our humid Central Pennsylvania summer days! Burgers dripping greasy sizzles back onto the coals and the Amish potatoe salad plunking onto the paper plates right next to the deviled eggs and Utz potatoe chips. The beer cans crack as the carbonation bubbles explode to join the crackle of the fire pits and as sticky fingers unload burnt marshmellows onto chocolate lined graham crackers!
Summer! Life is to be lived so enjoy this and don’t feel guilty! We know that treats like this are not meant to be every day or they wouldn’t be treats! Your everyday practices are what define you and what defines your summer ready body. Find healthy modifications for your favorite cuisines. Get creative with recipes and be willing to make substitutions and changes so you can have a greater reward for your efforts.
Get a little creative and try new things you may find a new favorite AND be healthier! Good for you food can taste good to you! Go figure ????♀️
Amount per serving (1/12) — Calories: 446, Carbohydrates: 22.1g, Protein: 41g
