No matter what your fitness level was before, after an injury or a prolonged illness, chances are good you feel your body has changed. If you've had to sit around for a period of time, your body becomes accustomed to staying at rest and not doing much at all. However, if you want to regain your health and strengthen your body back to the levels you were before your exercise break, you need to start today.

Assessing the Damage

First things first, you need to talk to your doctor to see what shape your body is in at the current moment. They will assess your overall health and let you know if you should continue to avoid certain activities or if you are ready to start your new rebuilding plans. If you have been injured in the past, talk to the physician who took care of your injuries to see whether there are any movements you should avoid for the present time. When the doctor has given you the okay to get started, you will be ready to rebuild your health to its previous levels.

Slowly Adding Activity to Your Life

Though you might expect your body to pick right back off where it left off before your injury or illness, this is not always possible. In most cases, the body which rests for as little as two weeks will already have lost some of its fitness in a noticeable way. You may feel winded more easily and you will certainly feel more tired than you had before. These are normal reactions to time away from exercise, but these are also signals you need to start slowly for your recovery.


You will want to begin by simply walking whenever you can. This sounds like a simple task, but waking is the most basic form of exercise there is – and it can be a great starting point after a long absence from working it. See how far you can walk at a time, then try to go farther the next day, and the next day, etc. If you used to run or lift weights for your workout, slowly walking until the walking becomes easy is the best starting point. Once you get to a point of comfort with walking, then you can slowly run and then lift light weights.

Recognising Limitations

It might be tempting to simply go into your next workout and pick up where you left off. However, this can lead to injury and, more likely, to frustration. Your body may not have the same muscle mass and lung capacity that it did before your illness or your injury. You need to slowly build up these body functions again before you can be the athlete or exerciser you used to be. Take your time and listen to your body. If something is difficult to do, slow down. If something hurts, stop what you're doing. If you find you are getting very sore after a workout, take a day off.

This is not to say that rebuilding your fitness is easy. When you've had a strong habit of exercise, starting off slowly is a painful and disheartening process. But when you want to rebuild your fitness levels without adding more injuries or getting sick again, you need to be slower than you think you should. Your body will thank you in the long run.

When You Can Expect Normalcy Again

For most people, it takes twice as long to recuperate from an exercise absence as the absence itself. Thus, if you were away from exercising for a month, it might take you about two months to recover fully. True, some people can recuperate more quickly – it will depend on the fitness level you had before your injury or illness. Those who were in better shape may find they are able to bounce back more easily.

When you've had a long illness or an injury that left you on the sidelines, you need to give your body time to heal. While exercise is a great way to boost your health again, doing it too quickly can lead to a setback in your physical health. Start off slowly and eventually you will be back to your normal self.

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