Feel like skipping a workout?
Tired? Not in the mood? Here are a few ways to help you stay on track
The human body has evolved (or was designed — whatever you prefer) for movement. It is amazing how often this simple principle is ignored. So many of us spend countless hours behind desks, in front of computers, or worse still, in front of the TV. No wonder humanity has to deal with an avalanche of medical conditions stemming from lack of movement. Heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, depression and anxiety, and even some types of cancer. The list goes on.
I will not go into the argument of why physical movement is necessary. That, to me, is self-evident. I will add, however, that you need to aim at the daily practice of movement. It could be a team sport, a long walk, a run, a weightlifting session, martial arts practice, or whatever gets you off that couch. You won’t get there immediately, of course, start slow, and build it up over time. But that’s where you should aim to get. Daily movement of at least 30 minutes to an hour, if not more, should not be a rarity, but a norm.
Navy Seal and author Jocko Willink famously exercises every day. He lifts weights, does Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, does bodyweight exercises, and generally varies his workouts. Jocko’s insistence to work out every day is based on a simple logic — life will throw obstacles at you no matter what you do. You will get injured, get sick, you might be traveling, or have legitimately urgent things to attend to. So in practice, you won’t be able to exercise every day. So do not create off days yourself. Life will choose them for you.
You can try to be as stubborn as you like. Whether you choose the American “Do or Die”, or the Russian tongue-in-cheek “Die but Do”, you can’t beat life. And that is ok.
But it helps to build consistency over time.
I am almost 44 years old. I have been exercising, on and off, since I was 17. In 2020, I started experimenting with how much regular training could my body take. After a brief trial run in late 2020 (described in Train Harder in Your 40s), I decided to set a simple target for 2021 — exercise 5 days a week. I was skeptical at first, but a few months in, was on track and despite a couple of things that almost threw me off-target (contracting COVID-19 and an unpleasant dog bite incident), I completed the year with 260 workouts on the dot.
The main takeaway — it is doable.
So for 2022, my target is a minimum of 5 workouts a week. But I aim at 6 workouts a week. I was doing quite well as of late March, keeping it at 5,8 days a week. But an unfortunate knee injury after a BJJ tournament threw my pace off and I am now at exactly 5 days a week. The very fact that this feels like a disappointing result puts a smile on my face! So I will now do it Jocko style, every day as much as I can to see if I can catch up. :)
When you try to keep a daily workout routine like this, that life throws challenges at you is only one part of the problem. The other is you, yourself. Every once in a while (and occasionally, for days) you just don’t feel like working out. Your brain is looking for every excuse to skip a workout. You are tired. You are busy. You have other things to deal with. You have already worked out a lot in the last few days. You deserve a day off.
This is Resistance (a concept coined by Stephen Pressfield), a force trying hard to prevent you from moving forward. From getting better, stronger. From being disciplined. From unlocking your potential. Resistance is cunning, creative, and highly capable. It is masterful in coming up with excellent reasons why you should stop. Rest. Relax.
Whatever you call it when you have your inner voice trying to convince you to skip a workout, here are a few things you can do:
- Not Today — from Jocko Willink, the author of Discipline is Freedom and Extreme Ownership. Do not skip today. Do the workout today. And if tomorrow you have the same nagging voice, then fine. Skip. But chances are, if you persevere today, tomorrow that voice will be much, much weaker.
- Not Twice — this one is from James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits. Never skip twice in a row. If you decide to skip today, fine. But no matter what, make sure you work out tomorrow.
- Protect Your Streak — once you develop a streak of a few days in a row when you have “scored” workouts, aim to extend your streak. Every time you take a break, you restart your streak. Reminding yourself of your streak will be a strong motivation to keep going even when you don’t feel like it.
- Create an Anchor — for me, it is my gym playlist, dominated by the Prodigy, some of my favorite action and sci-fi movie soundtracks, and Daft Punk. Once you put that music on, almost on cue, my body gets into the workout “mood”.
- Keep track of your workouts — the very fact of recording and being able to visually review your training practices will motivate you to be consistent. Your memory or impressions about how much you exercise are typically off. We tend to think we do more than what we do.
- Get a gym partner or join a team — skipping a workout will feel like letting others down so you will make more effort to stay on track.
- Find a specific objective that motivates you — a competition, a test, a challenge, a specific target and work with that objective in mind. Consistency is how you get there.
Needless to say, make sure you recover — good sleep, eating healthy, stretching, sauna, massage, whatever your body needs.
Finally, every once in a while (but not more often than that!) give yourself a well-deserved break. :)
