How do you know when to take a day off?
When you get into fitness, exercise, and healthy living, you hear two different things: you have to work hard, and you have to recover properly.
Doing those two things simultaneously seems like an impossible task, but it’s not. You have to do both, so how do you do it?
It starts with honesty. Sometimes, you definitely deserve and need a day off. When you find yourself struggling with getting yourself going, ask yourself these questions:
1) Are you in severe pain?
No pain, no gain, is very overrated. If you have trouble going about your daily life, you should not go to the gym. Instead, visit the doctor.
Nothing will slow your progress like an injury. Nothing makes an injury worse than overuse and a lack of rest. You do not want to see permanent damage to your body because
Soreness is a part of the exercise. It’s a pain that is manageable and may even feel weirdly good if you think about it as a product of hard work. However, if you’re excessively sore, you shouldn’t exercise that muscle group.
2) Are you EXCESSIVELY tired?
Keyword in all caps: EXCESSIVELY. Regular, run-of-the-mill tiredness is something you should be able to overcome most of the time. In fact, it’s something you’ll have to overcome all the time.
If you are struggling to stay awake, you didn’t sleep at all the last night, or if you’re starting to feel sick, then you should not go to the gym.
Sleep is incredibly important. The average human spends a third of their life asleep. Without an ample amount of sleep, you won’t be able to recover from the strain you put yourself through.
3) Do you just really, really, really, REALLY don’t feel like going to the gym?
Exercise caution with this one. In order to build habits that last a long time, you have to do things even when you don’t want to do them. Ask anybody who has been going to the gym for a long time: they don’t always want to. Discipline is the most important part of achieving a goal.
That said, sometimes we need a break. If you’ve been busting your butt day in and day out for weeks on end, you may need a mental health reset. That is okay! You want to avoid burning out.
Before you load up a tray full of snacks and pop yourself down on the couch, ask yourself honestly: do I need this?
If you answer yes, enjoy your day off and get back to it tomorrow.
If not, you should consider getting into the gym.
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