Staying in the Groove

One of the things I've mentioned over the last month or two is that I've struggled to stay in the fitness groove, especially when it comes to lifting. Some of this was caused by getting sick, but other times it was me just not wanting to lift, probably because it would be a legs day. I didn't necessarily revert to being lazy, often times I would skip legs day for a run instead. But in the end, the result was the same, I got out of my rhythm.

I'm one of the people who does best when I can get into a routine. Getting into a routine is incredibly helpful for me to help maintain both my focus and my motivation. Be it fitness, writing, or anything else, having a routine has been helpful to keep me zeroed into what I want to be accomplishing.

During the pandemic, one of the things I appreciated about working from home and not having any out-of-the-house activities was that I could more easily get into a fitness routine. I would get up early, lift, work for the morning, go for a walk or a run over lunch, then work the afternoon. After work, I'd cook dinner and have the evening to focus on whatever I wanted to do.

With the end of the pandemic and being vaccinated, I started playing hockey again. And while obviously that's my own choice, it did and is continuing to affect the routine I rather liked during the pandemic as the game times are all over the place, but often starting very late. And with the rush of adrenaline from the competition, well, there were times when I didn't end up going to bed until 1:00 am. Try getting up before or around 6:00 am after going to bed at one. I know, first world problem here.

I got a new job at the end of 2020 and my work schedule has changed anyway, so the routine I was doing doesn't really apply anymore. But I'm hoping that I can use the holiday break to help jump-start myself back into a routine that keeps me going to the gym roughly every other day. The GZCLP program I use for strength training has me lifting every other day which I appreciate as I'm starting to get a bit older. My goal is to use the off-days for walks, runs, and maybe even some bike rides. I'll throw some actual rest days in there too as sometimes my body just needs a-sit-around-and-do-nothing day.

Over the last 10 days, I've gotten 4 sessions in. It feels good to be lifting weights again. I've kept with the same program I was running back over the summer, just lowered the weights and restarted my linear progression.

The one thing about the breaks is that I have to deal with delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) with my leg and core muscle groups. For a couple days after the first leg and core workouts after a break, the muscles become sore and I have to hope I don't need to cough. It throws me off. Thankfully, once I start lifting regularly, I don't really deal with that kind of intense soreness. So here's hoping these last 10 days stick and I don't have to deal with the DOMS for a while.