Three months ago I set myself a challenge. The challenge was this: could I get back to my original fitness after having 6 months without training and could I achieve this within just three months? I have always had a theory that if you have participated in a form of regular exercise and then had a break, it should take you half the time spent on the break to get back into shape – in my case three months.

Did I do it?

Having fully recovered from the week’s training schedule I was ready for a good shoulder workout today. The weights, as with all shoulder workouts, need to come right down – which is different from when you exercise other muscle groups. This is necessary due to the lack of day-to-day use of these muscles. Basically the shoulders are used to lift items upwards up to and beyond shoulder level. As this is a movement that I do not use regularly during the day it is a particular weak point as it is with the majority of people in non manual jobs.

The alert among you will notice that today’s exercise is happening a couple of days later than it should be. The reason for this is that you need a rest day between day 2 and day 3. “But you had two days rest” I hear you cry! True, and now I have a piece of advice: on your rest day do not decide to cycle 40 miles however nice the weather is, especially after quite an intense leg workout the day before. So really I only had one day off exercise as I could barely do anything as my butt was saddle sore. Why do they make saddles as thin as a credit card? (Take a cushion next time – Beeble)

Today I am feeling a little worse for wear from the rather intensive chest and biceps workout of yesterday. This did not prevent me from entering the gym this morning with a defiant look on my face ready to take on my leg workout routine. I am particularly determined this week as I have a nagging thought in the back of my mind that there is only one more month to go of the experiment and whilst the progress is good there is still along way to go.

Meeting old friends

Those of you who have been following my progress in “The Experiment” will know that this is now the last month that I have available to me to regain my pre rest form in the gym. If I manage to do this I will help prove my theory that the amount of time it takes to get back into shape is half the amount of time you have taken away from doing exercise. In my case I spent 6 months away from exercise and therefore concluded that it should take me 3 months to get back into shape.