Nothing beats consistency. And being consistent with your workouts is the best thing that can be done by an individual. Consistency brings in momentum and momentum lead to habit formation.
However, life is not a straight line. A lot of amateur individuals, have an idea that there is no reason to miss your workouts. It’s about priority. This thought pattern actually comes from two places: lack of experience, and wrong social media influence.
Remember, if your life is a pizza, then exercise is a small slice from that pizza. It’s not the entire pizza.
We are human beings, and life is extremely unpredictable. There are occasions when despite of your best efforts, you aren’t able to follow your regular routine. Sometimes it’s by choice, at other times it’s the need of the hour, and yet at times it’s about priority.
Below are 5 occasions, when it’s OK to skip your workout:
- Personal Sickness or Injury – if you are sick, your aim should be to get well first. Sickness needs recovery. A minor fever or cold, will get better in a day or two, if you give yourself proper nutrition and rest. Most youngsters bursting with energy, worsen their illness, if they neglect it and workout.
Similarly, if you sustain an injury. Let’s say you get a fracture, or a ligament/tendon/muscle tear, or sustain multiple injuries due to an accident. In all such cases, you need a break from a lot of regular activities, of which workouts is one.
2. Sickness of a Family Member – this is a serious issue, which needs attention. And it’s not just our job, but a moral obligation to take care of our family members, when they are in tough times. There are cases, where a family member is suffering from a serious chronic illness, like cardiovascular diseases, orthopedic issues, psychological illness, who may need prolonged care. Then there are acute cases, for e.g. a person down with severe dengue or malaria, or any other viral infection.
In all such cases, they need support from their family. You can’t just neglect your family members, because it’s time for workout. In the initial days, you may have issue adjusting, with the timing of your regular workouts. But slowly, as life progresses, you will be able to adjust the workout timing acc. to the patient’s need. For e.g. you will come to know the sleeping time, medicine time, eating habits, washing habits of the person. And you will be able to shift your workout timings accordingly.
3. Exams – you aren’t giving tests every week. Neither all the minor tests and exams need a break from your schedule. The time most people should be spending in the gym is an hour. And when you have small tests coming up, there is no reason to miss your gym workout, in the name of studies. Of course, if you are in a habit of studying on the last day, then it’s a different story.
However, in case of a major exam, like your final exams in the school or college, you need to focus on the exams. Depending on the individual preparation, a person may altogether take a break from the workouts, or reduce the intensity of the workouts to moderate to light, and can also reduce the frequency of workout sessions per week.
4. Financial Crises – we all go through tough times in life, and such times need proper focus and dedication. For e.g. if you and your family is going from a financial crisis, may be due to losses in business, a loss in job, or heavy debt etc. then the priority is to get over that situation as fast as possible.
At these times, there is a tremendous mental pressure because of uncertainty factor in play. Such situations demand a lot of time and single-minded focus from an individual, and mental exhaustion is way too high. This is the time when all your energies should be channelized towards overcoming the crises.
5.Misc. Short-Term Reasons – there can be other reasons, because of which, you may have to forego your workouts, for a short period of time. For e.g.
- If you are continuously travelling,
- if you are starting your own start-up;
- you may have additional responsibilities like taking care of the kids if your wife is away for work;
- you may have sustained a minor injury or wound
But in all these cases and more, be true to yourself, and get back to your workouts as soon as you can.
