If you have taken a break from your exercise program it’s hard to get motivated to start back into your workout routine once more. What you need to do is make some realistic attainable “written”goals to help get you going.

The main reason I have emphasized “written” is because if you don’t write your resolutions in a notebook your resolutions are simply wishes. Studies have demonstrated over and over again that writing your goals in a notebook is powerful beyond measure.

Let’s take a look at several sample situations. If you would like to get back into jogging, walk to start with. Depending on your level of exercise you can only begin with fifteen or twenty minutes. If you have a certain level of fitness start with 30 minutes and steadily intensify it.

Once you have been walking briskly for a couple of weeks you can ease back into jogging by alternating walking and running. Start to walk for just ten minutes and run for five minutes and so on. As you begin to running longer and your discomfort subsides increase the jogging until you get back to running for thirty to forty five minutes at a time.

If you have experience with weight training in your past and have taken a time-out of more than a couple of months you really need to take it slow coming back.

When training with weights, if you push yourself too hard too early you may perhaps wind up damaging supporting tendons and ligaments. The answer is not to hurry in trying to use the same weights you were using and do less sets.

What I do after an extended layoff is to go to the fitness center and work out on the stationary bike for 15-2o minutes to start with for a warm-up. Then, I may choose only a single specific body part every day to exercise. If you are an elderly individual or have a large frame you may possibly want to stay on this type of program even following your initial break-in period.

Let us take a look at working the torso for example. If I were bench pressing 300 pounds prior to my layoff I will start my first work out with 135 pounds and do 3 or 4 sets of repetitions of about 15-20 times each. Adjust your weights accordingly. Afterward I will do 3 sets of flat dumbbell flyes yet again with higher reps this time so that you don’t put too much strain on my tendons and ligaments.

Stick to these same strategies for all body parts and you should increase the weights and reps slowly and within a month you will be right back to heavy weight training again and moving towards your goals.

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