Don’t EVER Skip A Workout Day…Or Should You??

By Sean Nalewanyj
Natural Bodybuilding Expert & Best-Selling Fitness Author
www.MuscleGainTruth.com


If you desire to be successful at anything in life, discipline and consistency are an absolute must.

You must be ready to work hard week after week, and put forth the necessary effort even on those lazy days when you would much rather not leave home, flop on couch and relax.

There is a common saying that goes “80% of success is showing up”, and for the most part I’d say that is pretty true.

Building and developing muscles is no different.

You must stick like glue to your workout routine and force your butt into the gym even when it’s the last place you want to be at that moment. If you are serious about gaining muscle size and strength as rapidly as possible, you should never, ever skip a workout session…

Or should you?

Here’s the catch…

Sure, consistency is important. Sure, you should be staying true to your workout schedule the great majority of the time. Sure, just bailing out on your workouts out of pure laziness is not acceptable.

However, take a look at a quote from the late Mike Mentzer when he stated… “Rituals have nothing to do with science”.

What you should remember is that the human body is an extraordinarily complex biological “machine”, and that not  all workout and recovery periods are the same.

To put it simply, just because your schedule says you are to train on days A, B and C doesn’t necessarily mean that this will be the most beneficial pattern to follow every single week.

If the next training day arrives and your muscles are still aching, you’re physically worn down and your usual motivation to workout feels like it has been nuked… don’t you think your body is maybe attempting to tell you something?

Why would you force yourself to workout in these circumstances where more muscle recovery time is obviously needed, and when you know that your workout performance will fall short of optimal? If your body, muscles and mind are without a doubt still thrashed from the previous training session, does it really make sense to force yourself to workout despite this?

After all, we know that your body’s recovery phase is the ultimate “muscle builder” (the actual biological process of developing additional muscle tissue happens outside of the gym on resting days) and that intense weight lifting is extremely tasking on the body as a whole…

So why would you purposely interfere with the very process that allows your body to take new shape and transform your physique? Why not take an extra day off and come back to the gym as soon as you feel physically and mentally ready to do so?

What possible harm could there be in doing that?

There is no danger of decreasing muscle size or strength, as these decreases take two or more weeks of inactivity to start occuring. Yet, there is the very likely reality of  positive muscle gain with proper recovery from the previous training session and increased performance on the following workout.

The basic principle is to simply listen to what you body is telling you.

Rituals truly have nothing to do with science, and if it is clear to you that more rest is needed, then do it.

Don’t force your body into another struggle with the weights until your body is ready to do so. Don’t let your pride get in the way; just because some muscle building “expert” said to you to “never skip a workout” doesn’t mean that it’s always the best thing for you.

However, you do have to apply method with caution…

If you take on the mentality of only training when you “feel like it”, then it’s very likely that you’ll start putting off your training sessions and telling yourself that it’s best to do so when in fact it’s not.

There will be many times when you won’t feel like working out just because of psychological reasons rather than justifiable physical reasons, and that isn’t what I’m talking about here.

I’m simply talking about those days when you are able to sense that from a physical point of view, taking an extra rest day would be the better choice of action.

Simply remember this… there is no long-term danger in taking an extra rest day, but there IS the certain and immediate danger of training your body before first being fully recovered.

When in doubt, take the day off!

Want more no-nonsense muscle building tips just like this one?

Check out www.MuscleGainTruth.com for more info. In a bodybuilding world full of  hype and over-exaggerations, I blast right through all the lies and give you the honest truth about what’s necessary to gain muscle fast.

About The Author

Once an unconfident, wimpy “social reject”, Sean Nalewanyj is now a well known natural bodybuilding and fat loss expert, best-selling fitness author, and creator of the insanely popular online muscle grwoth system, “The Muscle Gain Truth No-Fail System”. Learn how to build muscle and gain weight in just 24 minutes a day by visiting: www.MuscleGainTruth.com.

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12 Responses to “Don’t EVER Skip A Workout Day…Or Should You??”

  1. Stumbled across your post while searching through yahoo. I read the beginning and its fantastic! I don’t have time to read it all now, but I have bookmarked this site and will read the rest later. : )

  2. Ambitolit says:

    Good blogpost, good looking weblog, added it to my favorites!

  3. Owen Boehm says:

    ahhh and that would definately not help, so I guess 8-10 at 250-300 will have to do

  4. Is there any categorical diet that you may recommend for somebody that is 220 and 6’4? I have a tough time losing weight also.

  5. Last week I dropped by this site and as usual great content and ideas. Love the lay out and color scheme. Is it new? Well I really really like it. Email me the theme at joanbm3@gmail.com. I love the tips on this site, they are always to the point and just the information I was looking for. Its hard to find good content these days in the world of spam and garbage sites.

  6. Six Pack says:

    Hi!I think this blog is good!I found it on Google,I will surely come back! :D

  7. How often do you weight train? I’m about to go to the gym right now.. I’m doing cardio today but I work my arms about every 4 days

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