You've started the new year afresh and are ready to show those intentions who's boss. But sometimes life gets in the way and has you thinking 'should I go to class or give it a miss?'. We address the common scenarios to keep you on track.
We’ve all been there. Staring at the clock as the time to your alarm creeps closer and you realise you’ve barely slept at all. A workweek that stretches outside the confines of Monday to Friday, 9 to 5. A summer cold that is not yet debilitating, but creeping in on you. Any of these reasons (and many more) may have you questioning whether or not you should leave the confines of your bed/desk/home and venture out to your Mega or Ride class. We look at a few of the common situations and weigh in.
You had a shit sleep.
Should you take a pass on the 6 a.m. class and try to catch a few more winks? Realistically, you’ll only be getting another hour of sleep before you have to get up for work anyway, and that’s only if you can actually fall asleep. We say go to class! You’ll feel better and more awake after, and the endorphins from the workout are guaranteed to get you going more so than that extra hour in bed.
You’re starting to feel sick or it's um… self inflicted.
Should you skip it or is it ok to work out? Of course every case is entirely different, but generally we tend to go by an old rule of thumb: if your symptoms are above the neck, you’re ok to go. Anything below, you should take a pass. This means if you’ve got a headache or some congestion, you should be good to go. Sore throat? Nausea? Shortness of breath? Give it a miss. It will likely only make matters worse for you, plus that’s not a bug that you want to expose to others. It it's purely self inflicted.. well we'll let you be the judge! Sometimes it's good to sweat it out.. or you might just have to enjoy the couch.
Work has been hectic.
Should you leave and go to class or stay and get more done? Ask yourself this — how much longer are you willing to stay to finish up? Will you really be productive in that time? Does this really need to be done for tomorrow? Lastly, ask yourself this: what is your time worth? Being physically in the office, but not mentally isn’t any good (just the same as in your workouts) so you may as well get to your session. You will feel heaps better afterwards, get a better sleep, and be more productive the next day.
What about missing your a.m. sweat and go in early? Unless your deadline is that morning, we say nay! Similar to the sleep situation, will an hour extra at work really make a difference? Instead, make sure you are 100% prepared to go the next morning so you don’t waste anytime after class and you can jet right to work after class (see our tips for morning workouts here).
I'm really sore.
Like really, really sore. Should I rest or go to class? First of all, we can’t lie — we LOVE making you really, really sore.
If it’s the day after you just did a Megaformer class, we say take a miss on the Mega, but feel free to get into a Ride class to flush out the muscles. Or go for a long walk or a yoga flow class.
If it’s more than 24 hours post Mega and you're still sore, go ahead and push through. Once you get you’ll start to feel better. Remember — exercise is not supposed to be easy, otherwise everyone would be doing it! You should feel sore, you should be uncomfortable. And as long as that soreness isn’t related to the bad pain (like something is pulled or not properly aligned), you can push yourself outside of your comfort zone. This is your body learning to get stronger so that next time you won't be as sore (but you're always going to be sore).
If your scenario isn't listed here and you want us to weigh in, just let us know. But if you can take one thing away, remember this: you'll regret that workout, said no one ever.
