Photo: Contributed

With summer now behind us and routine starting to wiggle its way back into our lives, finding a way to make your health and fitness a routine again may be a challenge for some.

Believe it or not, there are actually some benefits of taking a break from fitness.  If you find yourself feeling guilty about health and fitness not being as large of part of your life throughout the summer, don’t feel defeated, let your disappointment be your motivation!

Taking a break from fitness, can leave you feeling lazy, unfit, unmotivated and unenergized, however taking a week off or even up to a month will not have you losing all of your previous fitness gains! The greatest benefit is that time away from the gym will provide you with a complete chance to recover physically.

A couple of weeks away from your fitness routine will allow your body that extra time to fully regenerate, and you might just find that once you get back into your fitness routine, you'll feel stronger. Having that time off will also increase your motivational levels.  Having at least one full week of rest every six months would be an ideal break for the body!

Now that we are getting back into the fitness routine it’s important to remember a few key factors!

Reduce your intensity:

The first week getting settled into your fitness and health routine can be a shock if you have taken time off - our bodies need to adapt to the condition it is now in. Those muscles may have memory but they do lose the strength with time off and the cardiovascular endurance may not be the same as it was before. Don’t beat yourself up with the condition you notice you're in... work with it, you will see fast changes!

Find balance in your schedule:

Throwing fitness into a routine of work, family and life can feel like overload! Rather than planning six workouts or activities in the first week, only plan three! The following week add one more day of activity! Over doing it may leave you feeling burned out with all of your other priorities, and have you quitting before you can even get started.

Enjoy the ride:

It takes on average two weeks to get into a good flow of routine.  Once you are there make sure there is no over training.  Switch up your workouts regularly, incorporate a flexibility program and enjoy the endorphins that will be pumping through your body after your workouts! Don’t forget to plan a one week break from fitness every six months!

 
Have fun with implementing a fitness routine back into your life!