When It’s Okay to Skip Your Workout

This morning I was supposed to do Fire 45; however, when I woke up this morning, I had one of those “oh, heck no!  I am NOT getting out of bed right now,” moments.  I hit snooze, and as I laid there in bed, I contemplated the pros and cons of taking a rest day instead of doing my workout.  Normally, if I were to skip a workout, I would switch around my rest day and make up the workout on Saturday.  Unfortunately, I’ll be out of town tomorrow and won’t be able to do my cardio then.  But then I realized that perhaps this “I want to sleep in forever” feeling was my body telling me that I need a break.

You may remember from an earlier post that my knee has been bothering me the last week or two.  In response, I decreased the amount of jumping involved in my cardio routines and I’ve been very conscious of my form.  Unfortunately, my knee isn’t feeling any better.  It doesn’t hurt, exactly; it’s more like it feels swollen or inflamed a tad and it doesn’t feel like it tracks properly when I bend it.  There’s something that kind of clicks into place when I bend it.  Not good.

So, I decided to take today as an extra rest day, rather than just moving my workout.  That way, I get two days off in a row to let my knee rest.  I will also be stretching all the muscles around my knee (everything from my hips to my calves) and I may try icing it as well.  I will also add foam rolling to loosen up the muscles in my quads, calves, and behind my knees (something I learned from the Tai Cheng program).  My hope is that between the extra rest and the stretching/rolling, I’ll be back to normal soon.

I will also say that I would rather miss a cardio day than a strength training day.  While cardio burns more calories during the workout, strength training builds muscle, which increases your metabolism so you burn more calories overall.  Additionally, I find the improvement in my strength very important and the toned muscles will look great as I continue to lose weight.  So, overall, I am happy with my decision to take today as an extra rest day, given the need for my knee to recover and that I only missed a cardio session.

Stay healthy!