It is convenient to use the stages to better adapt training to your current shape, to get the best result in the process of gradual changes in strength and tone. At the same time, do not forget that in physical education the most important result is health. The names of the stages are arbitrary.
Swing.
This is the initial exploration phase after a long hiatus. It is necessary to understand in what form you are, to feel at what speed you are recovering. Check the reactions of your body with small, careful loads. At this moment, you can discover in yourself previously hidden, imperceptible injuries or diseases – they must be cured. After a while, you can try to make the first additional efforts. After which they force themselves to rest, even if it seems that it is not needed. At this stage, you need to restrain yourself from heavy loads until you have minimal confidence and control.
Initial push.
Pendulum stage: effort – rest. The first loads and the first stress. The ultimate goal is a set of minimal shape and tone. At this stage, it is important to concentrate on positive emotions, because the return to the psyche can be very large. Especially in the days following the increase in power loads. When you have been without loads for a long time, you can make a starting spurt at the expense of energy reserves, “fresh” forces. And after it, exhaustion, a breakdown may occur. Therefore, it is important to rest well and not exhaust yourself. Reactions vary from person to person. For me, my best workout is to maximize the load on the right day, with a further half or third load the next couple of days. And then a couple of days of complete rest. Then first. With such jerks, alternately with rest, there is a buildup to the desired initial physical form for about a month. The risk of injury is high, so extreme care is required. But the main thing is a good rest and a lot of positive emotions. External distractions get in the way at this point.
Addictive.
After the stage of breaking down stagnation, the initial push, and a set of the minimum form, you need to get used to the new state, fix it, hold it, not break down. To smooth out all the consequences of the initial spurt as much as possible. To make workouts stop being stressful, stop shocking, and become something ordinary. At this stage, due to rest and exertion, it is necessary to choose the optimal mode in which pain and aches in the body will gradually disappear, injuries will heal, and muscles recover. At this time, you need to warm up more often, gently pull the muscles, fix the number of repetitions in the exercises, and look for the “injury-recovery” balance. Look for a load that fits into this balance. And work not for peak efforts, as in the beginning, but for stubbornness, endurance. Do the same number of repetitions in the exercises, but at the same time improve the quality. You can start with tricks that make it easier to exercise, which will help to consolidate the positive in the mind of achieving some result. And then gradually remove the tricks and build up “honesty” (quality). For example, to get rid of swaying, remove hovering in the extreme position (rest), remove a reduced amplitude (undershoot at the moment of maximum muscle stretching), etc. The stage of finding a balance “load-rest” should last until the aches in the muscles disappear and there is a full recovery from all injuries. And so on until the desire to increase efforts begins to appear (this desire must be restrained until complete recovery).
Hold.
Reaching a good tone and turning it back to normal. The same as in the previous stage of addiction, but without physical and psychological over-efforts. Exercises should not change, but should gradually finally turn into the norm, almost not require days for rest breaks. For this stage, you need to find enough free time, opportunities for classes, and show banal stubbornness. And also – restraint, so as not to succumb to the temptation to do the maximum, and continue to keep the same rate of loads, despite the fact that you can already do more. This step is the most rewarding. The longer it lasts, the greater the positive health effects. And the longer the form will then hold, even after giving up classes. During this stage, in training, the load becomes so habitual that you hardly sweat, and breathing and heart rate increase for a short time, after which it quickly returns to normal. Once again: the main thing is not to increase the load, not to increase the reps and approaches, but to keep the same amount, reducing the consequences and increasing the quality until you get used to it.
Contraction, “compression”.
An interesting stage is the continuation of “Hold”, but with a decrease in the time you spend on training, without changing the total number of repetitions in the total amount per training. Only the density, speed and quality of the exercise changes. At this stage, a full stretch can be done for the second approach, or even sometimes for the first one (if in summer or if already warmed up in the evening). Or you can do the desired total number of reps in fewer sets. In general, the point is to do the workout faster, shorter, without changing the total number of reps. The stage is not only interesting, but also useful, as it saves time. This is very convenient if you set aside time in the middle of the working day. This phase is similar to the Initial Shove, but with more confidence and predictability. And this is still an increase in load (albeit only at the expense of speed, not total). After it, you may need to “Addictive” again, and then again “Hold”.
Shake.
This is not a stage, but an experiment in the “Hold” stage, when sometimes you give the maximum in something. For example – once a month. This is not the maximum for the whole body, but some one exercise that you squeeze to the end. You give yourself a sense of the limit, you test yourself, you let yourself feel the limit of what you can. But you only do one thing – just jogging, or push-ups, or just abs, etc. After that, most likely, you will have to skip workouts for several days, or do a couple of “massage” workouts (half or a third of the usual), until complete recovery.
Only the main steps are listed here – for a quick first acquaintance. Further, there will be more details on each of them, and various additions.