Why “I used to do this all the time” doesn’t hold up
We might judge our readiness to exercise/move by how we feel and make that judgement from a cardiovascular perspective.
Lungs recover fast, legs remember the movement patterns, and within a few sessions we’re convinced we’re back.
But feeling ready and being ready are measured differently, and that’s where your September exercise comeback can go wrong.
Muscle and cardiovascular fitness adapt quickly, and within days or a few of weeks of consistent loading we start to see real change.
Tendons, the bits that attach muscle to bone, take longer to adjust. The evidence on tendon adaptation generally shows meaningful increases in tendon remodelling and strengthening takes around 8 to 12 weeks of steady, progressive loading, sometimes longer.
So if you haven’t run, exercised or moved properly in a few years, and you’re “getting back into it” now, you might find your heart and lungs might tell you you’re ready in week 2, but your Achilles is still weeks away from catching up.
This is why “I used to do this in my 20s” might not be enough if “getting back into it” involves full effort at 100% straight away.
Cardio fitness can be rebuilt fast, but tendons and connective tissue can suffer and just because you’ve done the movement before, doesn’t always mean you’ll make it through the first few weeks.
Bearing this in mind can keep you moving through spring instead of sidelined by week 4.
Practically, that means the boring stuff matters more than the exciting stuff right now.
Build volume gradually over 8 to 12 weeks rather than jumping straight to where you left off and pay attention to any twinges rather than pushing through.
It’s slower than we’d like, but it’s the difference between building through to summer and stalling with injury in a few weeks.
