With the needed task of covering the load of an admin not willing to or maintaining their part of the job at work, my gym time was sacrificed. My job obviously is a priority over my fitness goals, but it is not something that is easy to put on the back burner or me. I have had to miss a lot of time in the gym over the last 6 months as a result. Finally I have the burden of the extra work relived and I am able to get back to the gym regularly. I am probably in the worse shape I have been in, for the past 11 years. Something that is hard to accept for myself. To the untrained eye, you would think I was probably crazy. But this is a fact. Everyone goes through times in their life where something comes along and takes us out of our usual routines. And that's okay, I look at these situations as lessons from God. I learn from them, and move on.

After not hitting the gym consistently for 6 months, I began feeling it in my lower back. An area I hit at least 3 times a week. Sitting at a desk more often as well, was no help to this!! However, something you don't want to do when getting back into a consistent workout routine is hitting the gym as hard as you did when you were working out initially, when you slacked off. This is a hard one to discipline myself with. And I'm sure others as well struggle with it. By nature we want to start off with anything where we left off.

Instead of starting off with the normal 4 sets I do per each exercise, I started off with 3 sets. I will do this for the next two weeks. Then I will move back up to the usual 4 sets I do per exercise. I would recommend even splitting the sets in half for someone who was more stagnant than I was. I was not in the gym consistently, but I do haul 20 bales of hay alone weekly, and was riding horses a lot. As well as push mowing, and other strenuous farm/ranch chores. To me, it's important I don't make my muscles so sore that I have to slack off from my other priorities that require physical mobility. Yes, muscle soreness is good, but if it is to the point it takes away from other important life priorities, are we really being beneficial? The balance is important!