Long Hiatus... How to get back into it?

SouthPawSD

Active member
Hey all,

Been a while since, but I'm looking to get back into it. Due to life stresses, I've been working out on average 1x a week for the last 7-8 months. Looking for advice on how to get back into it.

The tempting option is to jump back on gear, but I know that isn't the best way to do things. I am sitting around 18-20% and I need to start cutting. I also am no where near to my old PRs or workout volume and I am kind of at a lost of a time line of when things should happen. The last time I had to get back into shape was when I first started working out around 11 years ago so this will for sure be a challenging experience for me lol.

As of now I am going to start a full body 3x a week workout and really focus on building my strength up. Instead of jumping into a upper/lower split since my body doesn't have the work capacity yet. I want to get to that 4 days/wk schedule of lifting soon though.

My question is how long did you work out "natural" before you even considered running a cycle again? My ego says 1-2 months lol, but mentally I know it is probably around 5-6 months I would guess, or when I start plateauing again maybe?

Any advice is welcome. This will be a good learning experience for me as well. I'm excited to go from training for pure strength/athletic performance to aesthetics.
 
SouthPawSD said:
Hey all,

Been a while since, but I'm looking to get back into it. Due to life stresses, I've been working out on average 1x a week for the last 7-8 months. Looking for advice on how to get back into it.

The tempting option is to jump back on gear, but I know that isn't the best way to do things. I am sitting around 18-20% and I need to start cutting. I also am no where near to my old PRs or workout volume and I am kind of at a lost of a time line of when things should happen. The last time I had to get back into shape was when I first started working out around 11 years ago so this will for sure be a challenging experience for me lol.

As of now I am going to start a full body 3x a week workout and really focus on building my strength up. Instead of jumping into a upper/lower split since my body doesn't have the work capacity yet. I want to get to that 4 days/wk schedule of lifting soon though.

My question is how long did you work out "natural" before you even considered running a cycle again? My ego says 1-2 months lol, but mentally I know it is probably around 5-6 months I would guess, or when I start plateauing again maybe?

Any advice is welcome. This will be a good learning experience for me as well. I'm excited to go from training for pure strength/athletic performance to aesthetics.
Click to expand...

It really depends. What was your body fat percentage before? I would think the later 4-6 months after you jump back on.
 
I'd be way too tempted to take full advantage of any kind of rebound and add some PEDs to the mix. Most guys will prolly advise to ekk out as much gainz naturally first, though.
 
Nac said:
I'd be way too tempted to take full advantage of any kind of rebound and add some PEDs to the mix. Most guys will prolly advise to ekk out as much gainz naturally first, though.
Click to expand...

So I thought of this as well... My first thought was if I did jump back on, this could make for a sick recomp. My other thought get rebound gains, than as soon as I feel they stop jump on.
 
SouthPawSD said:
So I thought of this as well... My first thought was if I did jump back on, this could make for a sick recomp. My other thought get rebound gains, than as soon as I feel they stop jump on.
Click to expand...

I feel there are good arguments to be made for either approach. Another variable to consider would be the cycle length and compounds you'd be looking at doing.

If you were looking at a short oral cycle, I'd be inclined to do that after some time reacclimatizing to the training/diet as a natty.

If you were looking at a longer AAS oil cycle, I'd prolly just start as soon as you start training "properly" again.

But there's still arguments to switch these around too. Lol sorry I can't give you my own black/white answer. Maybe try looking at your longer term goals too, how you want PCT (if you do it) to fit into things with Xmas looming, what you'll do after that, etc etc
 
if you are out of shape with high BF% i recommend focusing on running and cardio to get better conditioned + peel off some BF...not to say you couldn't also be doing strength training also, but for me my 1st consideration would be to build up cardiovascular system, stamina and endurance. get in shape and as lean as possible then consider a cycle would be what i would do--but that's just me.

btw-welcome back--good to see you here again!!!!
 
thebigt said:
if you are out of shape with high BF% i recommend focusing on running and cardio to get better conditioned + peel off some BF...not to say you couldn't also be doing strength training also, but for me my 1st consideration would be to build up cardiovascular system, stamina and endurance. get in shape and as lean as possible then consider a cycle would be what i would do--but that's just me.

btw-welcome back--good to see you here again!!!!
Click to expand...
I forgot to mention I will be running and doing conditioning as well. I will start out slowly and the goal will be to get to the point of 3-4x a week. Thanks for pointing that out.

Thanks bro, glad to be back into this forum. Lots of good info here but crazy the amount of sponsors and compounds that are not readily available as well.

Right now I'm leaning to doing a month of that, lifting with cardio and no gear, than reevaluate at the end of a month.
 
SouthPawSD said:
I forgot to mention I will be running and doing conditioning as well. I will start out slowly and the goal will be to get to the point of 3-4x a week. Thanks for pointing that out.

Thanks bro, glad to be back into this forum. Lots of good info here but crazy the amount of sponsors and compounds that are not readily available as well.

Right now I'm leaning to doing a month of that, lifting with cardio and no gear, than reevaluate at the end of a month.
Click to expand...
once again, glad to see you back!!! :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top