2 Realities of Returning to the Gym

As many of us transition back to Discover Strength studio locations and gyms around the world, keep the following in mind:

1.    You will be sore after your workout.  Even if you were doing Virtual 1-on-1 workouts at home.  Why?  The exercises we use in Virtual workouts are incredibly effective; in fact, the preponderance of evidence asserts that using one’s body weight can produce the same benefit as using a free-weight or a machine.  You will still be sore upon your return to studios because one of the primary causes of soreness is novelty of the exercise.  Stated otherwise, any time you change up the mode of resistance (you switch from a dumbbell bench press to a machine chest press), you’re apt to produce more soreness over the next few days.  Note, this is the same reason that your first Virtual session left you so sore.  Interestingly, there is no conclusive research that suggests that stretching or massage following a workout helps to reduce this muscle soreness (they may feel good, but the soreness doesn’t actually dissipate).  

2.     You might be weaker and perform less repetitions with a given weight.Your Virtual workouts did in fact make you stronger, however, because you haven’t been using the exact machine in the studio, your “skill” for performing that exercise has slightly diminished.  Your legs might be as strong as ever from wall-sits, ball-squats, and lunges, but you’ve lost some of the neuro-muscular coordination involved on the leg press.  No worries; the “skill” will come back rapidly.