For many women who are experiencing hypothalamic amenorrhea, gaining weight and losing the physique they've worked so hard for, are the biggest sources of fear and stress.

But losing strength can be equally frightening.

I haven't been lifting weights for a looong time now. Four months, to be specific. I stopped training in December when I realized I have to start working full force to fix my hypothalamic amenorrhea. There was a 3-week period in January though, when I went to the gym about 4 days a week, but at one moment, I stopped doing it because I realized that I'm pressing gas and break pedals at the same time.

I'm glad I realized that, because I wasn't doing myself a service. Yes, I had already stopped doing cardio and I was eating more, but if I kept weight training, wasn't it still defeating the purpose of all this and making the recovery even longer?

So, outside of this three week period, I haven't done basically any weight training since December. It's been the longest period in my whole life when I haven't trained.

In this post, I'm sharing how my strength and conditioning levels have changed.

Strength

The other day, after teaching a bootcamp, I stayed at the gym for a while to hang out. There was this pull up bar that started staring at me… and I decided to give it a try and see if I can still do any chin ups.

It's been a long break from chin ups. Actually, even longer than my “official” 4-month break. I haven't been able to practice them since October because I injured my wrist by doing a pull up program that had me working out 4 days a week. Apparently, it was too much for me and I ended up injuring a ligament in my wrist.

Before getting injured, I was able to do three chin ups (palms facing me), but I could barely do one pull up (palms away from me). And then I stopped for nearly six months.

Back to the gym. There I was, staring at this pull up bar, tempted to try. You may find it weird but I have this inner need to climb and hang on things whenever I see something that is suitable for it. We have even stopped a car a few times on our way somewhere, if I've seen a kids' playground or a monkey bar nearby. I just have to go and climb on this stuff. 🙂

I gave it a try, and here's what happened:

It wasn't pretty, but I was able to do two sets of chin ups, first set three and second set two reps (the one you saw in the video).

Is it really possible?

Apparently, it is! Sometimes less really is more. I haven't really exercised, but I can still do chin ups.

[tweet_box design=”default”]Sometimes less really is more.[/tweet_box]

I know that three and two aren't big numbers when we're talking about chin ups. For someone, they can be failure. But it was enough for me. My strength was not totally lost, even though I may have thought so.

Sure, had I kept working on my chin ups, I would likely be up to more reps right now. But given that that wasn't an option because of my injury and my hypothalamic amenorrhea recovery, it's still pretty awesome. Being able to do the same number of chin ups that I did before I stopped, is not bad at all.

Not all my strength was gone!

I also do some push ups once in a while and these aren't too bad either. I haven't tried to do maximum or anything, but I do a few here and there to break up my workday when I'm working from home.

Honestly, not much hasn't changed with my push ups either. I can still do them comfortably and with proper technique and I'm feeling strong and confident doing them. I don't have to do them fast and turn them into a HIIT workout, because the last thing I need to do right now is to burn ...