What are your personal indicators to NOT hit the gym?

[needheaven]

@ensea12 For indicators you just sort of need to go on personal experience. Don't feel like going and go anyway but have a good workout? Go and it sort of sucks and it feels like a wasted workout? Both are another data point to decide what to do next time you feel like that.

The much more important thing here is preventing those days in the first place, usually it's bad programming if you have too many like that.

And to directly answer the question, sleep is a big one. If I sleep very poorly I might skip the gym. If I don't get as many hours as I need I'll go but 2 nights in a row I might skip the gym the 2nd day. A solid gym routine assumes you are getting adequate sleep, if that isn't happening then your sleep doesn't match your gym schedule so gym needs to be modified.

 

[dawn16]

@needheaven You all talking about sleep and here is me, with two toddlers. Fml

 

[ensea12]

@needheaven That honestly feels like it might be the base of my problems this week; I work 13-14 hour night shifts so usually my sleep is on a tight schedule, but I’ve been a bit lax about bedtimes lately :/

Can’t get muscles if you don’t get rest; I need to button that shit up

 

[cpf]

@ensea12 I kinda feel like it’s obvious? Like I can fully tell I’m just being lazy vs. “my body telling me no”. Usually when I’m pretty sick or something that’s an obvious one

 

[icd]

@cpf Yeah agree with this. If I'm questioning "should I go to the gym?" Or trying to find an excuse, or weighing the pros and cons.

Then I know I'm being lazy.

When I shouldn't/can't go to the gym. There is no debate to be had.

 

[donnypt2003]

@ensea12 If I'm not scheduled to train that day

 

[naruwadew]

@donnypt2003 Wow you’re hardcore.

 

[donnypt2003]

@naruwadew Not really. If I'm feeling like shit I may go easier but still gonna show up.

 

[kbupdike]

@donnypt2003 Yeah on those days I just work on some handstand or other skill related work I feel like doing and maybe go down to the boxing room and just work up a bit of a sweat and go home. Didn’t make no PRs but PR on consecutive weeks on going to the gym that day.

 

[brittany111]

@ensea12 For me it's pretty easy,

I do heavy DB Bench work twice a week on a PPLR-repeat routine. There's this specific pain in my pec, near the armpit area where if I were to bring my hands together in front of me and flex them, I can feel a weird nagging pain.

That's my signal to take extra rest days or do a deload week. If I were to ignore this then that pain just gets worse and I start to feel it in my biceps, my quads and so on as I move on to do the rest of my PPL routine.

Been experiencing this consistently every 6-7-8 weeks for almost a year now. It sounds stupid but basically before every workout, I would do the same flexing exercise to see if the "pain" is there, if it is then I deload or take a rest day.

 

[davidlj13]

@brittany111 I got that pain today on bench, trying a new max. I chalked it up to a muscle strain.

 

[vitalizing]

@ensea12 If you've been consistent having a couple of days to not go so hard (sometimes life gets stressful too, you know) won't ruin your gains and if anything it can help you to recover for the next sesh.

We're not professionals even if we have our goals. I'm not a big fan of the "no excuses" crowd because we're human and we can't just be pedal to the metal all the time.

What matters is regularly attending the gym over years, decades. Going to the gym 3 or 4 times a week when you're on a 5 day routine isn't going to ruin your BB career. That's what matters.

It's when those days turn into weeks or months (god forbid) unecessarily, that's when the concern should rise.

 

[luxaeterna]

@vitalizing

I'm not a big fan of the "no excuses" crowd because we're human and we can't just be pedal to the metal all the time.

I feel this

 

[scienceisgift]

@ensea12 If i have 2 bad workouts in a row, then it’s time to take an unplanned rest day.

 

[plumb64]

@ensea12 Poor sleep coupled with low energy. Give the body a rest and come back the next day when I can have a good session. An extra day here or there doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things if it means getting a quality session in and not getting injured

 

[christopher984]

@ensea12 You can always go light and short just to get blood flowing, immune system responds to stress so you don’t want to do completely nothing unless your sick

 

[daniel_yashin]

@ensea12 Unless I'm really sick, I go anyway. But I might modify, instead of lifting maybe a light bike or walk on the treadmill. Sometimes that gets the energy going and I can lift, other times it's obvious I'm off, so I might do 20 minutes, some light stretching and done.

For me, the habit of just getting to the gym is really important to maintain, regardless of what I do once I'm there.

 

[abrandnewname]

@daniel_yashin Underrated comment! All solid thinking here

 

[ensea12]

Full disclosure, when I say I have a bad habit of pushing myself, I have tanked my ox sats on multiple occasions hitting the gym when I should have been hitting a nebulizer

 

[5061756c]

@ensea12 have you studied breath protocols?

former chronic asthmatic here. The Oxygen Advantage (book) and the Buteyko method (a medically tested—though contentious—breathing protocol) have helped me immensely. Thought I'd share if you could find value in those