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COVID Killed My Gains – 5 Ways to Get them Back

The pandemic took its toll on many people, but it doesn’t have to be difficult to get back on your fitness track by following some guidelines.

During the past few months, have you ever thought “Covid killed my gains”? You are definitely not alone. Here are 5 ways to get back on your track to achieve a stronger and fitter body.

CrossFit athlete and coach Marcus Filly uploaded a video in which he describes five tips every athlete needs to understand to get back in shape: good movement, do not sacrifice one concept for another, cardio, overload/deload, and the perfect programming.

At the end of the video, Marcus Filly mentions that while advanced athletes must vary their programming to see better results, beginners can stick to some foundational movements to get fitter which is a great motivation tool.

Watch COVID Killed My Gains – 5 Ways to Get Fit Back

1. Motor control and good movement must come first

If you just go back to the gym to get back to the same numbers of weightlifting you had before, you might lose the opportunity to learn better movement and technique. “Change your mentality from ‘fix it’ to ‘build it.’”

Perform slow tempos and pauses within movements and do foundational exercises in every program regardless of your skill level.

2. Range of motion, strength, muscle building and cardio are not exclusive concepts

While building muscle and gaining mass is important, you must give appropriate time and energy to range of motion training too. “Without it, there will tend to be a decline in joint health and, eventually, a training obstacle will present itself.”

How do you do that and still build muscle? Exercise selection is incredibly important. It has to help build muscle, strength, and also propose a great range of motion.

Marcus Filly’s five exercises to tackle all those areas are ATG split squat, deficit snatch deadlift, dumbbell pull-over, strict dips, and back rack Cossack squat.

3. Cardio will help with everything

The simplest way to get back to working out is to start walking. “Go for a 30-minute walk every day. If it starts feeling easy, walk faster,” Filly says. After a few weeks, if you still want to do more, then you can start thinking about bodyweight or weight training exercises.

Marcus believes that by doing cardio training you will feel improvements in your mental health, recovery, and detoxification.

covid killed my gains

4. Cycle through simple and complex progressive overload with a periodic return to fundamentals

In order to see some change in your fitness level, you need to make small increases in the intensity and volume of your training over time. However, you must also learn how to deload and not push for faster and heavier times at the gym.

So be part of a 6 to 12-week training cycles that allow you to progressive overload. Then periodically test yourself with some fitness benchmark. “These mark the end of longer periods of growth and should show off to you all the progress that you’re making objectively,” Filly says.

5. The best training program is the one that gets you excited and motivated

Are you excited to train? Many factors can alter your answer such as diet, sleep, programming, the environment and/or training time.

If one of the arguments above gets in the way of your enjoying your training you can improve your gains by simply tackling the issue head-first. Get more sleep, change your program, or surround yourself with people that cheer your progress. It is all worthy to get back to shape and stop saying that “Covid killed my gains.”

Read More: 10 Functional Bodybuilding Exercises to Help You Look Good

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