Some days you really just don’t feel like going to the gym. Actually, sometimes maybe you don’t even feel like leaving the couch. It’s natural to sometimes not feel like jumping into physical activity, but how do you know when it’s okay to skip a workout, and when you’re just being too lazy?

If you are normally an avid exerciser, and you’re feeling tempted to skip a day, you are excused.
If you are typically very good about not missing a workout, or you hit the gym on an average of 4 to 5 times a week, you should be able to skip a day without feeling guilty. Just make sure that one or two missed workouts doesn’t turn into weeks and weeks of lounging over lunging.

If you are brand-new to an exercise program and on day three you already feel like skipping a workout, override the urge to ditch and push yourself to stick to your new workout habit.
If you are brand-new to the habit of exercise and you’re already feeling as though you’d like to skip a workout you would probably be serving yourself better to push yourself to get into the gym. Maybe it’s just that you still feel like a newbie at the gym, or maybe the feel-good endorphins that happen when you exercise haven't yet kicked in for you. Maybe you’re still sore from your first routine. Either way, being so new to a program, you may not have started to experience all the good feelings that come with regular physical activity. It takes a while to genuinely enjoy exercise; don’t let old, lazier habits interfere with your well-intentioned, healthier new goals. Push through that initial urge to bail on a program and you’ll feel proud of yourself later for having followed through.

For both exercise newbies and fitness fanatics; if you’re not feeling well or are overly fatigued, allow yourself to miss a workout.
There have been some studies that have shown that exercise can help get rid of a cold and the sniffles faster. But if you feel achy, severely exhausted, or like you might be getting a flu, you should stay home in order to give your body a chance to recoup. Sometimes, excusing yourself from a sweat session when you’re feeling beat can be a good way to keep yourself excited about your workout for the next day. Again, you just want to make sure that your occasional missed workout doesn’t turn into a frequent habit.

If you really, really don’t want to face a crowded gym and all of it's sometimes annoying idiosyncrasies, don’t. But that doesn’t mean you don’t get to exercise.
Here’s the wonderful thing about exercise; you don’t have to be in the gym to do it. You can always go for a walk, a jog, a hike, a bike ride, a swim… There are plenty of options for physical activity that have nothing to do with the gym. If you want a calorie blasting, body toning, strength training workout, check out all of our free home workout videos. There’s really nothing wrong with steering clear of the gym, just make sure that you don’t replace your treadmill and free weight hours with cruising the Internet or additional TV time.

You’ve been out playing in the garden, mowing the lawn, or helping a friend move all day long and you are questioning your motivation towards hitting the gym.
If you’ve been doing something physical all day long you might not feel like doing an additional routine. It’s okay to skip a day if you otherwise been physically active all day long, but don’t forget all of the different kinds of exercises that might benefit you.

For example, if you spent all day long packing moving boxes up and down stairs you would still benefit from doing a short stretching routine, or 25 minutes of Pilates or yoga. As another example, a waitress who spends the entire day running around taking orders and delivering plates has probably taken her recommended 10,000 steps for the day. What she hasn’t done is anything that builds muscle content; she could still benefit from doing a short strength training routine, even after all of that physical activity at work. The goal is to find points of weakness in your own regular physical activity and use a workout in order to strengthen those weak spots.


How often are you tempted to skip a workout? Do you usually push through feelings of wanting to bail on a workout, or does the urge to be lazy usually win?