Even though you might try your best to keep a strict workout schedule, it can be hard sometimes. Life gets in the way of many things, and your workout routine isn’t exempt from that.

But what about when you’re ready to go back to the gym? Once you’ve stopped, it can be hard to get started again and you’re often out of shape.

So today we’ll be discussing how to get back into the gym after you’ve had a 3-month break, no matter the reason.

How to Go Back To The Gym After 3 Months

Start slowly by exercising 2 days a week for 20 minutes at a time. When you feel more comfortable back in the gym, increase your workouts to 3 days a week for 30 to 45 minutes a time, and then by week three, you can do 4 to 5 days times a week for 1 hour.

You can find motivation in many ways, and motivation can be a very personal thing so everyone will go about this differently. But there are a few things that all could help most people get pumped to get back to the gym.

You should start by having a clear goal in mind, and don’t make your goal “Get back to the gym” as tempting as that may be. Aim for something like putting on muscle, increasing flexibility, or gaining stamina. It all depends on what your ambitions are.

Another great way to get some motivation is by getting some help from an outside source. This source could be a friend that sends motivating messages every day or maybe even one to go to the gym with you, but it could also be a personal trainer.

What To Expect

After taking a 3-month break from the gym, you should definitely expect a few setbacks. But the good news is that these setbacks are probably just as temporary as your break was and you’ll be back in shape soon.

You shouldn’t assume that you can pick up right where you left off the last time at the gym. You’re definitely going to be somewhat out of shape the first few times that you go back to the gym, and some people will take longer to get back to where they were.

But as a positive, you’ll get back to where you were much faster than you got there in the first place. So as long as you’re patient, then you should be just fine.

You should also be prepared to be pretty sore at first. This is because during your break your body has stopped being used to working out, so there will be an adjustment period where you’ll be way more sore than you’re used to being after hitting the gym.

And lastly, you should expect to lose some of your motivation and have a harder time sticking to your schedule than before. 

It’s always hard to get back into things, and between you being out of the habit of going to the gym and also having sore muscles, you could be tempted to skip a few sessions. Just remember your goals to stay pumped, and keep going until you get past it.

What To Avoid

There are a few things that you need to avoid when getting back into the gym after your break. Things that wouldn’t have been an issue before, suddenly could be. So it’s good to be mindful of a couple of things.

1. Possibly the number one thing that you need to avoid is pushing yourself too hard at first. This could lead to a number of problems, one of which is you injuring yourself. Don’t expect to start back the same way you left off with your workouts.

2. The second thing to avoid is not being patient enough with yourself. When you see that you’re not doing the same things as you used to, it will be easy to get discouraged. But you’ll get back in shape eventually, if you’re patient.

3. And don’t beat yourself up over your break either. It’s discouraging when we feel like we’ve lost progress and you may feel that you’ve really failed by taking your break, but you haven’t and negative self-talk will get you nowhere.

4. Lastly, don’t give up! Even though the break that you’ve just taken is perfectly ok, you don’t want to take another one right after getting back. And it might be tempting to do it if you start to lose motivation at first, but stick with it!

How Long Does It Take To Get Back In Shape After A 3 Month Break?

Generally speaking, after about 3 weeks you should start to feel more like you used to in the gym. But sometimes it can take up to double the amount of time that you took off to completely get back to normal. Which means it could be about 6 months.

Some of the variables at play here are what type of workouts you do, whether or not you did at home workouts, your body type, what your diet has been looking like, how in shape you were in before your break, and also your age.

Depending on all of these things and more, you could get back into shape faster than the estimated time. Or you could take longer. But rest assured that you will get there. Just don’t do anything that could sabotage your progress.