Welcome to the Get Fit Guys quick and dirty tips to slim down and shape up. My name is Ben Greenfield, and I'm the Get Fit Guy. You've probably been there. I know I have. A new job, a new baby, an injury, life happens, and you find yourself taking a long break from exercise. And when you finally begin

working out again, your body just doesn't feel right. Your lungs burn, your muscles are sluggish,

and you feel like you're probably going to hurt something. So when you try to get back into shape

after a substantial break from fitness-related activities, should you ease into it? Or should you

just dive in head first and shock your system?

Well, whether you've been inspired by a New Year's resolution, an uncooperative wardrobe,

or an unfriendly bathroom mirror, this episode will teach you how to get back into shape quickly

and safely after a break from exercise. In the episode, How Fast Do You Get Out of Shape? I taught you that when you quit

working out for two to three months, you lose at least half your aerobic fitness as your lungs

lose elasticity, your blood vessels shrink, your blood volume decreases, you use oxygen less

efficiently and your heart pumps less blood per beat. If that seems very inconvenient,

you're going to be even more annoyed by the fact that your muscles begin to significantly lose

their strength and disappear after just 72 hours of no exercise. And that's why getting back

into shape is hard. Just like a car that's been parked in a garage for several years,

your body needs a significant amount of warming up before you can take it straight back to high speeds on the highway.

If you try to jump right back into the same type of workout routine you were doing before you quit exercising,

then your body rebels against you in several ways. First, since your lungs have lost their

elasticity, you have to suck wind much harder to get oxygen into your body. And this increased

strain on your inspiratory and expiratory muscles can lead to that notorious sideache.

Next, since your blood volume has decreased, your blood vessels are smaller, your cells aren't as efficient at grabbing oxygen from the blood,

and your heart has to work much harder to pump oxygen to your working muscles.

So for any given effort, you feel as though your heart is just pumping out of your chest.

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