Advice After 3 Months Off....

What would be a good program to get me back into the swing of things. I have taken 3 months off while dealing with a seperation,divorce and trying to keep my business running. Now that I am somewhat back on my feet I need to get back to the gym. I was considering a full body workout three times a week until I get my energy back up and get through the soreness. What are your thoughts and suggestions. Thanks.

First, good luck with your new life. I am in a tough situation now too; not easy. Anyway, I think you’re on the right track, I would lift whole body too. I would say maybe for 6 or 7 w/o’s and purposely go pretty light, say 4 sets of 10 with light to medium weights just to acclimate your system to training again. After that, you should be able to go balls to the wall again.

Hang in there MWilson! As far as a program I think it was Chris Shugart who wrote an article titled “beginners blast off program”. Do a search on it.
You might not be a beginner but, I use it everytime I take a long break from working out for a couple of weeks to get back into it.
“Sancho”

I’ve found after long layoffs of several months that keeping the weight light and the sets to a minimum (especially on the first workout)that I am able to avoid soreness and progress into more meaningful workouts in about two weeks. Just use one or two basic power movements like bench press, rows, squats. On squats or bench I start at 2-3 sets in the 12 rep range with a light weight with what is usually my warm up weight or a little less, I might get just a tiny bit of soreness. In the past where I have tried to get a good workout right from the getgo I’ve left myself so sore I couldn’t walk right for 2-3 weeks or I couldn’t move my arm without pain. Sometimes this has discouraged me and made it take way longer to reestablish the habit. The thing to keep in mind is what causes the soreness is the clearence of waste products, as long as you don’t go beyond your ability to deal with that (which is real easy the first or second workout)you should have no problem working out three times a week and adding a little weight or sets every work out. This also works good for getting newbies started without scaring them off.

I recommend a 6 day a week double split training each muscle group 3 times a week. Do 30-40 sets per body part and keep training sessions over 2 hours. Use only machines and pink plastic dumbells!

I agree with taking it light. I started working out in March after a few months off and decided to do the light workouts and gradually increase the reps and weight. I thougth squatting 135lbs for 1 set of 12 reps was light enough. I should have used just the bar 'cause I was in pain for a week. I would get up from my chair and would need about 30 feet before I could start walking normally. I was fine until I sat down again and my muscles would freeze up on me. I’m 38 so I guess I need to ramp up my workouts slower than before. It didn’t stop me from working out though. Good luck.

Thanks for all the input and the workout program suggestion. I’m off to the gym this morning.