First day back at the gym was a failure

Joeyd727

About 5 or so months ago I hurt my ankle/foot pretty bad. I was out of work a bit and had to stop going to the gym. Today was the first day I went back and it was or felt like a total failure. I tried continuing my routine and weights where I left off and I felt so out of wack. My lifts were terrible, I couldn't keep up with my weights. I left the gym because I just didn't have it in me. To anyone who has gone through this does it subside? Will just going at it consistently get me back physically and mentally?

aokoye

Ok so that's not a failure. That's normal. If you haven't been able to workout for 5 months for any reason (injury or not), you're not going to be able to immediately go back to the same intensity/weight/length of time of XYZ thing(s) you're used to doing. The same could be said for a situation where someone was able to say, run a 5k in A amount of time, stopped running for B months in favor for some other form of physical activity that isn't running (regardless of the cardiovascular impact), and then decided to go back to running. They're simply not going to be as fast.

The only potential failure was your assumption that you could go back to the same weights as 5 months ago, but I suspect that's more an issue of innocent naiveté than anything. But yes, it does get better. You're going to have to scale back (don't ask me by how much) and build back up, but you'll get back to where you were and then some. I've had quite a lot of experience with this in the context of cycling and recovering from multiple major knee surgeries. It sucks, but something that might help is knowing that everyone deals with this, including elite and/or professional athletes.

Duck_Puddle

I feel like I might be a professional injury recoverer sometimes.

Don’t start where you were. Start where you are now. Put your expectations aside and work at the level that is appropriate. Don’t maybe test your 1RM right away-but work at whatever weight feels like the right weight for whatever rep/set structure you’re doing. For now, Expect that it will be less than what you did pre-injury.

Yes, consistently working at the proper level will bring it all back physically and mentally. And it will come back much more quickly than when you first built up to it.

MikePTY

It would be weird if you were back at the gym after 5 months off and just able to lift like normal. It's gonna take time. Your body will come back to where you were, but it's not going to be on the first session back. Or the second. Just work your routine the best of your ability and do the weight that you can do now. Focus on completing your workouts, regardless of the weight you need to do to complete it.

aokoye

Joeyd727 wrote: »

My brain is where I left off but the body wasn't. I guess I just high hopes and then they were smashed.

I suspect it's just that you had very unrealistic expectations because you didn't know any better.

Viking_Dad

5 months? A 50% deload would have been a good idea.

nytrifisoul

No offense, but why would you stop for almost half a year due to a ankle/foot. If you were talking about running i would understand, but lifting? And also, what do you expect trying to pick up where you left off in half a year. Again sorry, but this kinda stuff is obvious captain.

nytrifisoul

I mean, unless your trying to do leg lifts, i don't understand how you couldn't do any lifting that entire time. I mean, ive seen guys who lost there leg (vets) do lifting at the gym. Again, not trying to offend, i will go crawl back under my rock and leave you alone.

Good luck with your recovery though.

aokoye

nytrifisoul wrote: »

I mean, unless your trying to do leg lifts, i don't understand how you couldn't do any lifting that entire time. I mean, ive seen guys who lost there leg (vets) do lifting at the gym. Again, not trying to offend, i will go crawl back under my rock and leave you alone.

Good luck with your recovery though.

To make a very long post short, different injuries and recoveries involve different limitations. If standing causes immense pain because of an injury, doing any sort of exercise or activity that involves standing is probably not in the cards unless it's absolutely necessary and/or various mobility aids are being used.

Azdak

What you experienced was exactly how it goes. I’m a lot older, but when I come back from a long, debilitating injury, I do like one set of 10 reps for maybe 8 exercises at about 60% of what I did before. And I consider that a win.

When you are off for awhile, esp if your other activity is curtailed, there is short-term and long-term detraining. The short term effects are mainly neuromuscular—your brain has just forgotten how to work the muscles as efficiently as before.

When you go back the first time, it’s like “whoa, WTF dude!” Think of having your legs in casts for 5 months, taking off the casts and immediately try to do some complicated ballroom dancing. You would just kind of flop over.

It’s too bad you had a negative experience, but the good news is that those short-term effects will reverse reasonably quickly.

Keep in mind that when coming back from an injury, it probably only takes about 50% of your previous workload to achieve a training effect. You don’t have to do anything complicated, you don’t have to work to failure, you don’t have to do a high volume.

Other than being let down comparing your current level to your past achievements, it can actually be kind of relaxing—literally anything you do will have a positive benefit.

This is also a good time, with the lower weights, to work on form or try some newer exercises. You will find that you will ramp up pretty quickly—I would think that you can be back to a “regular” workout in 2-3 weeks although it will still take some time to get back to your old weights.

Another reason to start off at a lower level is that your muscles will progress much faster than your joints and soft tissue. For a younger, fit individual it is easy to progress too fast and develop tendinitis or other injury. The muscles can lift the heavier weights, but the joints, ligaments, etc, are not at the same level.

I’m going through a similar experience, having had two debilitating injuries in the past three years, but being forced to work through them at a physical job. I just started back lifting regularly about four weeks ago, so the process I am describing is one that I am living. I still can’t do any standing compound exercises and am limited right now to mostly machines. But it’s great to be back lifting regularly and I just hit that first big step forward this week.

So get back in the weight room and take a step back and enjoy what you can do today. You will progress faster than you think.

Azdak

aokoye wrote: »

nytrifisoul wrote: »

I mean, unless your trying to do leg lifts, i don't understand how you couldn't do any lifting that entire time. I mean, ive seen guys who lost there leg (vets) do lifting at the gym. Again, not trying to offend, i will go crawl back under my rock and leave you alone.

Good luck with your recovery though.

To make a very long post short, different injuries and recoveries involve different limitations. If standing causes immense pain because of an injury, doing any sort of exercise or activity that involves standing is probably not in the cards unless it's absolutely necessary and/or various mobility aids are being used.

You are 1,000,000x more polite than those comments deserved.

cupcakesandproteinshakes

OP you may need to make changes to your programming short term. What programme were you running before you were injured?

I’m assuming yr docs have cleared you for lifting?

You will regain your strength but it may take time.

It might be a reasonable approach to restart a novice programme but I don’t know anything about yr training history.

springlering62

You went back to the gym. That’s a win, not a failure. Many people wouldn’t have.

nighthawk584

starting back at full tilt is a road to another injury. I know the frustration!

jeffjeff85

The only 'fail' you had was when you quit and walked.
I dont know your injury so I cant say what you should or shouldnt do. But I will say I knew a guy.... Jim had his.leg broken and knee cap shattered in a car accident. Hospitalized for months, bed ridden. Then had a walker for a.while, then a cane for a while, then crutches.... idunno, over a year.
But he found he could do bench presses and seated military presses without hurting his leg. By the time he was off the crutches he had the.most impressive chest in the place.

snowflake954

I'm surprised that you didn't just keep working above the waist with a foot and leg injury. I get the impression that your pride is getting in the way. Don't ever let it. It will hold you back. With any injury--YOU DO WHAT YOU CAN. That's a smart way to approach life. There is no shame in dialing back your workout for a couple of weeks until you're up to snuff now. I wish you luck, and be very careful that you don't re-injure yourself. Patience.

littlegreenparrot1

I once read that muscle wastage starts after just 3 days.
Which is why if you've been in bed with flu for a week everything feels so hard, even just a shower or making a sandwich.
After 5 months it's unrealistic to just jump straight in.

Be kind to yourself, you won't be starting from scratch, you just need to build up.
It might be worth a few sessions with a trainer if you can manage it, they could have suggestions for alternatives or how to safely build back up.

feisty_bucket

Going is not a failure. The process of putting in the effort to get stronger is the goal; the actual numbers are meaningless. Go again tomorrow.

sijomial

It's OK and normal to be disappointed when you are coming back from injury or other reason for a layoff - but seeing your reduced performance as a failure isn't appropriate. Better to see it as the end of a crappy spell in your exercise life and a start back on the road to where you were before.

I'm just coming back from my third extended spell of injury this year and I was incredibly disappointed to find my cycling cadence had disappeared and my power output was frankly pathetic. But it was a start.
A week on and my cadence has restored itself as the nervous system wakes up and my power and fitness is coming back fairly quickly (but from a very low point!).

I'm now moving on from the "disappointed in myself" stage to the "realistic stage" where I know my fitness and power is down (-16% from last year's peak). Both in cardio and strength training terms the first few workouts you will see remarkable speed of progress that tapers off pretty quickly and only then can you judge exactly where you really are and what you have to work on.

Just like a new lifter you need to pay more attention to recovery plus you have the added concern of making sure you don't aggravate your injury. Not the right time to push to failure, keep the stress levels sensible.