Coming back from a break

So you got burnt out, or you got super duper busy at work, or you weren't getting the results you wanted (or at least not fast enough) and threw in the towel, or you got abducted by aliens and they did weird probing tests on you for the past 2 months, whatever the case you have not exercised much at all in quite a while.
Well let me give you a few tips.

1.  You cant do it all in one day
2.  Make sure you warm up and stretch
3.  Quit while your ahead

1.  So you are eager, you recently saw a friend who has lost some weight, grew some new muscles and inspired you, maybe they turned into a werewolf and got a kick-ass six pack.  You got pumped (or felt so badly about yourself that you are guilted into going back to the iron) and you are ready to start getting aggressive in the gym.  You have a bunch of old routines that you remember that used to work pretty good, your 20 minute stomach destruction, your interval wind sprints to the brink of puking, your biceps drop set that makes it hard to wash your hair, etc etc.  Well my friend DONT DO THEM ALL ON YOUR FIRST DAY!!! You need to ease into this thing unless your going to be walking funny, getting mad when someone makes you laugh, and having trouble ripping paper towels off of the roll.  It will be beyond uncomfortable, it will be painful, you won't want to go back, and you'll look silly walking up the stairs one leg at a time.

I am nice and WARM! 

2.  Warm your ass up!  You are risking injury on this first day because you will have a hard time scaling back.  Cut your idea of your workout in half and take the first 15 to 20 minutes to go through a long warm up. Do some easy walking or jogging, go through some stretches,  some simple boring things that you usually avoid.  Take yourself through a nice long warm up, make sure you are sweating before you "start your workout." You don't want to get hurt on your first day with your renewed sense of motivation, do you!?  Didn't think so....

Leave em wanting more!!! 

3.  Quit while your ahead.  Make your workout on the shorter side of things.  Stop working out before your arms and legs feel like bowls of jello, before you feel like you might throw up (or do throw up), before you strain your back by doing your first deadlift with the weight that you used to do all the time.  You want to have a nice positive feeling about exercise when you finish on this day.  Leave yourself wanting more. Just as you really start to hit your groove, call it a day.  Like George Costanza in that Seinfeld episode... You know the one?  If not, you should brush up on your Seinfeld, it's a good one.  Anyhow, don't overstay your welcome at the gym, exercise and run away, live to work out another day.  If you wake up the next morning and feel great, then step it up a bit that day, but lets just wait and see, shall we?  Good luck, go get back to it..... Embrace the burn!