Maybe you shouldn’t.
You don’t want to be in the habit of skipping workouts. If you make a promise to be there, at such and such time, you ought to keep your word. Not keeping your word to yourself is one of the most damaging acts you can commit against yourself.
There should be little tolerance for such self-betrayals.
That said, there’s a limit to hard-headed inflexibility.
Doing too much for the sake of keeping busy may be the cardinal sin of the fitness world.
The better question is whether you made a promise you need to keep at any price…
…or whether you are going through the motions out of blind stubbornness.
I know I sure get into phases where I’m showing up because I show up, and not because there’s a goal pulling me forward.
They used to call this staleness.
Nothing’s wrong, nothing feels off, nothing’s hurting, but there’s no mojo there.
You’re flat as a three-day-old bottle of Coke.
Which in many ways is worse than feeling terrible. At least if you wake up feeling like they took a bat to you, there’s no question of dropping a few gears and cruising for a little bit.
Going stale, though. That’s just staying busy to stay busy. What’s the point?
Most people are doing too much. Too many exercises, too many sets, too much time on the treadmill, too much effort blowing out brain-circuits and setting off stress reactions, and for nothing.
All that trouble and they aren’t touching the levers and buttons that make muscles grow and fat go away.
Going stale is one more version of busyness without effectiveness.
The question to ask is:
Do I “not feel like it” because I’m genuinely beat to paste?
Do I “not feel like it” because I have no goals, no purpose, no direction, and no inspiration to be here?
These are two different answers.
Most people are in the second category, if they’re telling the truth. (Most people are not telling themselves the truth.)
You may not need to rest, exactly, but if you don’t have a direction pulling you forward, you might ought to wonder why you feel so bad about the time off.
If you’re over 40, busy staying busy, and not seeing the results you want with your belly and biceps…
Right now I’ve got a precious few spaces for 1:1 coaching opening up at the end of March.
I work with clients over 40 to stop beating yourself up, cut out the extra junk in your eating and exercise that keeps you stalled, and fix you up good so you can get that flab off, feel better, and look better.
If you’re interested in working with me for a tune-up, send me a message and I’ll send over the details.
Matt Perryman