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What To Do The Next Time You Want To Skip Your Workout · Your Strongest Body

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: You are listening to your strongest body.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Betsy Foster, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and certified nutrition coach.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: I've worked as a personal trainer for over a decade, helping people build strength, speed, muscles, as well as a deep appreciation for their bodies and confidence that helps them live their life to the fullest.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Now I'm sharing what I know with you fitness, nutrition and all the deeper stuff to help you discover your strongest body.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Hello, hi, hope you are having a great day is what I was going to start with, because that's sort of what I start with my Instagram stories with, and then I realized I can't tell you what day it is because I don't know what day you're listening to this.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: So I haven't quite picked an intro and I haven't quite picked an outro, but we'll sort of see how it goes.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Today we're talking about what do you do when you want to skip a workout.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: I've got three strategies for you if to try, if skipping your workout isn't your ideal scenario.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Now, if you know me, I am not a no excuses style trainer.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: There are tons of legitimate excuses for you to skip your workout.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: That is not what this is about.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: This is about the times when you're kind of interested in working out but the mood isn't right.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: You are wishing that you were working out, but you don't want to, and how you can get around that.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: And I think, if you've dealt with this before, if you've struggled with it, possibly the issue that you're having is just not having strategies that help you get out of that funk, get out of that stuck spot.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: And as we get into the episode, I'm going to give you three of those strategies and then I am going to talk through some reasons where I think, if you feel like you don't want to work out and you are experiencing any of the following, it might be actually a good idea to skip the workout.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: But we'll start with the strategies that are going to help you get it going If you feel like it might be your preferred choice and I know you understand, you know, I imagine I guess I don't know, but I imagine you understand what I'm talking about that feeling like I don't want to do this but I quote, unquote should or not even should you like want to have done it.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: I talk about that a lot.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: That's how my husband describes working out.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: He's like I don't want to do it but I want to have done it, and I think that really describes exercise for a lot of people.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: And so on, those moments when you, like, really aren't feeling it or can't get it going, especially if you're thinking about, like anything, when we go from stillness to movement, it's a bit to get it, to get the momentum rocking and rolling.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Because the momentum is rocking and rolling, typically it's a little bit easier to keep going.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: And so when we are tired at the end of a work day, or when the alarm went off in the morning and you're just like not feeling like you can do it, or when you set aside a time that you were going to go and that time gets closer and closer and closer and you're not either going to go to the gym or go to your backyard to do the workout.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: When you're feeling that way, what are some things that you can do to flip that switch to more of a possibility mindset, more of a okay, what if I tried?
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: So here are my three favorite strategies.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Number one the thing that I always suggest to people is the 10 minute rule.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: The 10 minute rule is commit yourself to 10 minutes of the workout, 10 minutes only, and I mean truly give yourself the permission that if, in 10 minutes, set a timer, if in 10 minutes into the workout you still don't want to be doing it, you can stop.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Give yourself that freedom to be done with it.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Psychologically that helps get over the hump quite a bit.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: That really can sort of improve the experience.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: So give yourself that out at 10 minutes.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Set that timer.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Now, for many people when you start the workout and you do those initial, it's 10 minutes.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I was going to say six.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: When you do the initial 10 minutes, it actually gets a little easier to keep going and maybe you're there for 10.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: You're like I could get 30.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: And that's awesome.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: All that shows you probably, is that the getting started is the hardest part for you and finding strategies to get it going so that once the blood flow is happening, once the core temperature is elevated, you feel like, all right, I can make this happen.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: I can do this.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: If at 10 minutes you are still not feeling it and you're like I don't want to do this, truly, let yourself be done.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: If every time you do this, you don't actually give yourself the break at 10 minutes and you force yourself, this tool isn't going to work Because all you're doing is playing mind games with yourself.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: It's that same thing of hiding the vegetables inside the mashed potatoes.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: You start to hate mashed potatoes because somebody's trying to sneak something in on you.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: If you say 10 minutes and then you force yourself past that point when you don't feel like doing it, you're losing that strategy.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: So allow yourself to be done.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: There are tons of reasons why after 10 minutes you still might not want to be doing it, and that's a good time to release yourself of that.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Release yourself of that Because it's probably not going to be every time.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: If you use the 10 minute rule once or twice a week in your workouts because you're not up for it one of those times, I think your frown is going to turn upside down, so to speak.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: You might find that you can do it.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: But again, you've got to really psychologically allow yourself to be done at 10 minutes if you want to be done, ok.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Second strategy so another one that I think I usually use if I don't feel like doing it is do a different kind of workout, preferably your favorite kind of workout.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: So this is for my folks who are pretty regular and or are following a program.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you look at a program and you've been going and going and going and the day that you don't want to be working out is also your hardest workout, or your least favorite workout, or your most complicated to set up workout or the longest workout, whatever it is it's the one that is just not inspiring you.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: It's not giving you the good feels.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: You're just like.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: I don't want to do this one and I don't want to minimize, like set up and all.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: There are lots of aspects that make a workout fun to do or not fun to do, or maybe tolerable and not tolerable.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: In this case, when you're having one of those days where you don't want to work out and then you have a workout you really don't want to do, it's a double whammy.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: So free yourself from the program in that case because, let's be real, consistency is going to be the number one contributor to your fitness progress.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Hands down, hands down.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: When you look at it from even from a research standpoint, what they find is that it's actually just doing it.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: You could do the exact same workout consistently all the time and you have better gains than the person and better progress all of that getting better results than a person who is infrequently doing a really well-designed program.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: So if it's the workout that is making you, or adding to the stress of getting started, switch workouts.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Go to the favorite workout in the program and do that one that day.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Instead Do a workout of your choosing.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: So pick your four favorite exercises and go, do those exercises Really again.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Free yourself from the limits of what is in front of you and see what can be fun, see what can spark some interest and some motivation is the wrong word, but some excitement about what you're doing.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Pick one of something else.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: You also might be surprised that once you get there, you throw in one or two of the exercises that were from the program that day because you're there and now it's not that complicated.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Or you pulled out the weights and it's actually you know.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: You can squeeze those in.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Whatever it may be, and in a lot of cases I'm imagining going to the gym.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: But I want you to know that this applies to your home workouts.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: It applies to anything, any kind of training that you're doing on your own.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Same thing I mean for your run.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: If you were going to do hills, and that's not going to, that's not going to cut it.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Today, do the kind of run that helps that you're up for doing that.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: You're like oh, this will make me interested in continuing to do it.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Last, one last strategy is to throw out the idea of kind of the workout in general and just do something active that doesn't feel like a workout and that you are going to look forward to.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: So I don't know.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Do you roller blade?
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Do you go for a walk?
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Do you go play basketball?
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Do you go to the pool?
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Something where you're going to like elevate your heart rate.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: You're going to move your body.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: You're going to accomplish that.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: You're going to probably boost your mood because you moved a little bit and you moved in a way that you liked.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Maybe you do with a friend or a group of friends or something like that, something different.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: You checked the active box and that feels good, but you didn't have to do that workout.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: Just because you don't do the workout that's planned or the workout you feel like you have to do, does not mean that you're never going back to it.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: I think there is an element of a lot of people who believe that if they give themselves permission to change the plan or if they give themselves permission to do something that isn't the quote unquote best thing they will never get back to the plan or they'll never get back to the program, and I don't think that's true.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: It's the same way with food, in my opinion, is that when we create a lot of restrictions and we create places where we take away the freedom of choice, we take away the enjoyment out of fear that we won't ever be able to bring ourselves back to the plan.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Then we actually just make the plan.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: So, you know I don't know what the word I'm looking for we make the plan so unnot doable.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: Um, you know, we make it boring, we make it intolerable, we make it something that we dread versus something that we enjoy.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: So you've got to give yourself the and this is a skill that you have to develop.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: But you have to build a certain amount of trust with yourself where you know that if on a certain day, you have to do one of these strategies and it's not exactly what you planned, you will still be able to another day, do what you planned.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: It doesn't negate all the work that you've done before.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: It doesn't mean that you're a failure.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: It doesn't mean that you are good at convincing yourself not to do things or letting yourself off the hook.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: It is being flexible.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: In a world in which we have to be flexible to keep this going, long-term Rigidity is the thing that's going to get in our way.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: So let me remind you of these three things real quick.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: You're going to either try the 10 minute rule, choosing your favorite workout or a workout you really like over what's planned for you that day, or just doing something active that isn't necessarily the workout.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Those are three great strategies.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Now let's talk about some reasons why it might not be appropriate to workout.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: One you're sick.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Sometimes sick is the kind of sick where you're like oh, if I move a little bit, it'll actually make me feel better.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: Sometimes sick is I should not workout because either I'm going to get other people sick, I'm going to make myself sicker, I'm going to set myself back in the long-term because I didn't allow myself to recover enough.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: So there are reasons where you would want to skip.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: If you're feeling sick, you don't have to exercise.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: You don't have to exercise.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: I always use the above when it comes to cold stuff.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: If I just have congestion, so it's above my chest, I will work out.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: If I'm not like contagious or something, because sometimes the sinus pressure and the fluid just kind of move around and that feels better and I can almost work it out.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Cough congestion, chest, anything like that I skip.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: I learned that a long time ago.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: I actually don't quite know the if it's just a rule of thumb based on somebody's opinion or there are probably a lot.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: There's a lot to do with like lymph stuff moving.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: That is a good thing if it's above your chest and then when we get to chest we're talking about respiratory things that are really good for your body to perform.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: So there's definitely some merit to that from a scientific standpoint.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: So, sick, you know, skip if you need to Fatigue.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Chronic fatigue is something, first, that you're going to want to address.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: But secondly, if you have a really bad night's sleep, it is a source of real stress on the body.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: So if you've done those tests where they see that like the effects of lost sleep on a person or similar to that of, like, high alcohol content so you're talking about stressed body then stressing itself more with exercise.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Now the question becomes is this a constant thing for you and you're not going to be able to get out of it?
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: And some movement would help.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's not a strenuous workout when you're getting little sleep.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: But we want to address the sleep, probably, and then think about are there days in which I know I'm going to have less sleep the night before, so I should make my easier workouts on those days?
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: There are times in your life where you're going to be sleep deprived and you have to decide whether or not you know I'm thinking about like new parents.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you're going to have to give up the exercise a little bit to prioritize a sleep.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you're going to find that the sleep isn't coming to you anytime soon.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: So if movement is the thing that gives you your energy a boost, or whatever that may be, it might be the right choice.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Again, it's about balancing and sort of and figuring out what is going to be most nourishing and give back to you the most.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: So sleep is one of those.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: I really would encourage you, if it's a constant thing, if it's an ongoing situation, addressing that sleep is going to be a huge dial-mover in your fitness journey or your journey to your fitness goals, whatever that may be, because you're probably not getting the kind of results you want because your body's not recovering well.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: But that's another episode, another day.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Stress you know like a really stressful time might be a time where you need to pull back on the workouts and there may be days where you need to skip, highly anxious.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: You know, skip you got some family stuff going on, it's fine.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Skip the workout.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: If it means that you are going to like have to miss something important, skip the workout.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: These are instances where you can just skip it and you don't have to feel guilt.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: You don't have to feel guilt about skipping a workout, ever period.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: But I want to remind you that our, our fitness has to fit in our lives, not the other way around.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: If we can find a way for those to coexist and sort of again like kind of nurture each other, then it's easier for it to be sustainable.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: So realize there are reasons why skipping it is just going to be the better option.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: But if you feel like you want to give it a try, 10 minute rule, one of your favorite workouts, or an active, an active, an active activity, something that is active, that isn't a workout, those can be great solutions.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: If you got more questions about this topic or any other topics, you got topic ideas, you just want to chat and say hello, let me know that you're listening.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: You can reach out to me Betsy at be foster strong dot com.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: That's my email.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Betsy at be foster strong dot com or at foster underscore strength.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: That's my Instagram.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: You can send me a DM.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: You can also just follow and get content there.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening again, until next time.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Bye.