It’s been a long layoff, longer than you thought it would be. It has been months since you’ve stepped foot in a gym. You’ve made some efforts at home – pushups and situps – but nothing has stuck. You have lost most of your muscle and you’ve added a few inches to your waistline. Your diet, previously described as disciplined and focused, has become everyday American junk food. It’s time for a change, and you’ve decided that ‘day one’ starts tomorrow. Are you ready to go ‘all out’? Not so fast. Let’s check out the major areas of your lifestyle which will need attention, and see why starting back slow might be the best idea.

Training

Your muscles are in very poor shape at the moment. You are neither strong nor muscular. Muscle memory is a wonderful thing, and you will return to your previously held level in just 10 or 12 weeks, even if it took you a decade to get there. However, you can’t return to your previous workload, in terms of sets and weights. You will need to start slow. A full body workout for three days the first week should be followed with a push/pull split for the second week. By week three you should be returning to your standard 4- or 5-day split, with the heavy weights retuning after 6 or 8 weeks. Come back too fast, and you’re likely signing up for an injury or soreness which will keep you out of the gym for days or weeks.

Nutrition

While you may be tempted to immediately jump into a strictly regimented diet, history shows you probably aren’t going to stick with it 100%. Instead of trying an all-out lifestyle change at once, why not try taking things more slowly? Begin with removing sugar from your diet. Then, after 2 weeks, cut back on the flours. Two weeks later, bump up your protein intake. Two weeks later, curb the fats. In two months you’ll be in full-out bodybuilder eating mode, with no major shocks to the system.

Supplementation

A return to the gym is often accompanied with a trip to the supplement store or website to spend a hundred or more dollars on various supplements. You know that you can use the boost, and you’re interested in seeing what advances have been made in sports nutrition technology since you left the sport. While it’s important to help cover your bases as far as nutritional needs, you will want to return to supplement use slowly. Your body isn’t used to processing so many chemicals on a daily basis, and it’s also making the adjustment to the new level of training, which will sap resources as well.

Start with a multivitamin for a week. Then add vitamins E, C, and B to your daily regimen for a week. The following week, start taking whey protein twice a day. You can then add creatine the next week, followed by anything else you’re dying to try. ECA and other stimulants or fat burners shouldn’t be used until you’ve been back in the gym for at least six weeks. Be sure you’re consuming enough water each day when using all of these supplements.