Men who used to workout regularly but not anymore, why did you stop and what are the pitfalls to look for ?

27 comments

1. I stopped for about a year just before the pandemic because I hurt my back pretty badly. Took a while, and a lot of physio, to get back to a point where it didn’t hurt to workout. I started with some small workouts again at the begining of the pandemic and am back into full swing now.

   Don’t get hurt bad would be my advice.

2. I’ve always lifted weights since high school but around 5 years ago I had a huge shoulder surgery. Both of my shoulders are shot from heavy bench press for 30 years. I took up running because I can’t lift like I used to. I wish I could still lift heavy.

3. Covid started… I’m so bad at started things, but if I could just get myself past the first week…

4. I don’t know if my advice is any good but I stopped for 2 years (2020 – 2022).

   So, I was/am a Boulderer… Pre-Covid all I did was climb, 3/4 times a week and ate whatever I wanted, I burnt it off… It kept me in good shape, slim yet muscular.

   Covid happened amongst other circumstances and climbing wasn’t as accessible for me, even after restrictions lifted…. I gained close to 3/4st over this period.

   What I couldn’t change was eating. I ate whatever I wanted, and so I carried on but didn’t seem to gain weight… So I thought. I also went through a dark time as covid went alongside that and climbing was/is very much my mental health care.

   Fast Forward to the last 1 1/2 months, I climb 2/3 times a week, and gym most other days (resting diff parts of the body) and mostly, I live in a calorie deficit now, so I eat what I want if I have the calories left (highly recommend it).

   Pitdall, I’d say, the weight gain… It’s a super slippery slope…and for me. It wasn’t until a family member told me twice in 3 days how “fat” I’d become after I’d travelled 200miles to see them…

   I have discovered I need physical exercise greatly, I am not very good at a ‘still’ life. Also with my career change, I now sit down for 8hours a day as a software developer, so joining the gym was my first step back into fitness, then returning to climbing when I mentally felt ready.

   I hope you can find some solcae out of my ramblings. Feel free to ask anything else, I’ll do my best to help.

5. I stopped after a knee ligament injury about ten years ago. So I started walking, lots — to and / or from work — working up to a nicely weighted ruck as my knee got stronger. Then … I tore my rotator cuff which put me out of action for a while. Just as I was getting over that and back into walking with a ruck, lockdowns kicked in and I managed to get sciatica, pretty bad — chronic so I’m told, with pirriformis syndrome to boot. That’s put a stop to pretty much anything except stretches and some light tai chi. I’m looking at cycling again as it’s less load bearing for the sciatica. I should go swimming but have never enjoyed it.

   I’ve obviously put on weight over this time — I’ve tried to moderate and change my habits, but as it turns out I’m an anxious face stuffer, and I put weight on easily (great for working out, I’ve always been very broad chested with strong legs). Walking used to help massively to clear my mind. And I’ve struggled to replicate that. Also, I’ve noticed my joints are less supple. Losing your fitness after the age of 40 is no fun at all.

6. Graduated college, got a full time job, and had a kid. That’s not an excuse as you can always find time, but it just got harder to fit it in my routine. I did start working out on my lunch break cause I had a gym right by my office and then the pandemic happened. I’ve been a lazy bastard ever since.

7. I’ve had ups and downs. I am working out these days but can still provide pitfalls.

   For me the main thing was alcohol. Drinking is a lot of calories in itself. But it also reduces inhibition and can make your eating worse. Then a hangover can kill motivation to exercise. Enough missed exercise can then make you say “why bother, I already missed 3 days…”

   I think some people can balance drinking like this but I admitted I can’t so I’ve mostly stopped. I might have a few beers once a month these days.

8. Children.

9. I stopped working out and moved to yoga and reformer because I found I got much more out of those activities than I did from weightlifting

10. because working out sucks

11. I sustained a bad leg injury. I’m just glad to be walking without a crutch/cane, now. I’ll slowly get back to where I was but I’m just happy to walking without assistance.

12. M58. I’ve been on and off during the years (kids, work, etc) and think it’s more a matter of keep trying. At 52 I started working out with my 19 year old son and my bench jumped up over 100 lbs more than I’d ever done (even when I was a young gym rat). You’re never too old to get back in it and make gains.

    My back will go out once every couple of years unless I’m regularly doing squats. It’s weird, like my body is trying to tell me….don’t stop, you need to be pushing weight or it will deteriorate .

13. Too many Injuries, too old, too many professional obligations, and too many kids.

    I had to scale back everything because there is literally no hole in my commitments for the gym. I squeeze in some calisthenics with the boys during baseball practice and I do physical labor at home and on my own properties, cars etc so that helps.

    I’m not a fat piece of shit but I’m not the ultimate ass-kicking powerhouse I was for 25 years.

    TLDR: Obligation creep and aging.

14. Moved for work. Didn’t find a gym I liked much. Then the pandemic happened and I didn’t even go to the gyms I didn’t like much for months. Now 2 years later I sunk the money into building a home gym and have been able to make my garage into a gym I like.

15. Stopped for work demands once and injury another.

    Look out for a lower mood, increased fatigue, rapid fat gain

16. I always get tripped up by vacations. Like I’ll be hitting the gym 3-4 times a week for months, body addicted to it, not even hard to make myself go anymore.

    Then I go on a family vacation for 5 days and spend the whole time loafing around, drinking and smoking weed with my cousins.

    Then I get back and my body is like “yeah…more of that drinking and loafing eh lad?”

    So just kind of make sure you work out at LEAST once or twice on vacation, and be aware of this trap, and be extra vigilant to force yourself back into things afterwards.

17. I stopped when I started dating, didn’t have as much time and didn’t make it a priority. Haven’t started up again even though I’m not dating again, honestly the only negative effect is that I can’t do as many pullups/etc anymore, still look and feel the exact same

18. I stopped back in December because of a back injury, pinched sciatic nerve. I hate not working out; it’s essential to my mental health. I’m still in “better shape” than most people, but this is the worst shape I’ve probably ever been in.

    The pitfalls for me is that I have chronic depression and a history of self harming tendencies. Working out was one of the most concrete means of corrective self care I had; when I exert that much effort taking care of something, I start caring a lot more about it. Working out made me quit smoking, quit drinking, quit fapping, start eating better etc. so a lot of that came back when i stopped.

19. Used to run every morning, an hour to 2. Can’t anymore do to plantar warts on my foot making it uncomfortable. Tried getting them removed but they’ve come back several times

20. I reached my goal of 150kg bench. Then I had real life kick me in the dick and a lot of other things came in between.

    Not quite got myself back into it.

21. I completely blew out my knee had to have a full reconstruction after that i just went down hill

22. I stopped because of a COVID wave, delta variant I believe. I personally would have felt comfortable continuing to go however I had a pregnant gf and wanted to minimize risk to her and the baby. Now have a kid with her so finding time to fit the gym in is tough now.

23. Before COVID, I was going to the gym 2 hours a day 6 days a week. I got really built, really strong, lost a ton of weight. Pitfalls with this were: I injured myself a couple of times. Didn’t do any stretching so I had almost no flexibility. Since all I did was work and go to the gym, the gym became my personality, which wasn’t cool in hindsight at all.

    Then I met my ex, who just wanted to drink all of the time. So I gained some weight back.

    Now I go to the gym 2 days a week for 2 hours per session, and run every other day. Thankfully my gains I lost are coming back very quickly, I’ve dropped half the alcohol weight (just 20 lbs to go until target, woohoo!), but my legs are having a hard time coping with the running, so I’m just making sure I’m doing the lifting with perfect form/manageable weight, and resting when I feel like my body needs it, making sure I’m eating well enough for the lifestyle but not enough to bulk like I used to.

    Now working out is just something I do as part of my lifestyle and isn’t a hobby, obsession, or lifestyle itself. Listening to my body instead of pushing it against all odds is preventing me from injuring myself, and the proper diet is keeping myself healthy.

24. Falling out of the routine is what did it for me. I’ve now got a Beachbody subscription and a pretty good home gym so the routine has returned.

25. Letting small injuries break your routine. You fucked up your shoulder? Pretty sure your legs still work. If you have pain every step, ok fine, stay home. If you’re just not suppose to use the shoulder, get the fuck back in there. Whatever day you worked that muscle group just became a cardio/stretching/abs days.

26. Torn rotator cuff, sprained mcl acl, l4 l5 herniation, c4 to c7 multilevel spondylosis, golfers elbow,

    Getting older and doing sports will take its toll.

27. It started to feel like a chore. I didn’t hate going but every day it felt 3x as difficult to go as it was the last time.

    Must’ve been the depression.