Well, this morning was one of those mornings when my energy level was pretty low! I had a terrible night's sleep and everything hurt a little throughout my body from so many hours of restlessness. When the alarm went off I gave it more of a dirty look than I usually do. Still I knew that I needed to get up so I'd have time to do some exercise before I had to do my other planned activities.
My planned workout was a combination of Yoga, Kickboxing, and other various types of movements. I knew that going full out wasn't even a remote possibility because even if I somehow managed to "get through" the workout I would have paid for it at some point later in the day or when I woke up tomorrow.
So, I did what I always do in these situations, I did my workout but decreased the intensity to a managible amount both in terms of the velocity of movements, the range of movements, and even completely substituted easier, less demanding exercises for some of those originally planned.
At first, even at this modified pace I was dragging pretty badly, but by the time I was half-way through I started to feel human again, and by the time I finished it I felt light-years better than when I started.
I just wanted to share this as an example of being able to find a way to get some movement in even on days when you aren't at your best. Unless you're really exhausted to the point of being debilitated or coming down with an illness, usually there's a way to modify your exercise to get some benefit. I would never recommend pushing through illness, injury or total exhaustion, in those cases, getting more rest is the best course of "action".
In those situations where you feel you can do something, the goal shouldn't be to improve your fitness level in terms of strength, conditioning or fat burning, but should just be focused on getting yourself moving.
I have found that over the many years of following this approach of modifying rather than foregoing exercise completely, that it's enabled me to maintain an extremely high level of consistency. Consistency is the key to long term success with anything and it's no different when it comes to fitness.
So, at those times when you know that workout you might have had planned is a "no go", see if there's still something you can do, even for 5 or 10 minutes. This can help you have a better quality of life that day as well as "keeping yourself in the fitness mode". If you start and it just doesn't feel right you can always back off and try again on another day when you feel better.
Just be smart, really listen to your body, and do what is best for you that day, and don't forget that you can always modify as much as you need to! :)
2009 Scott Fishkind Time4You Fitness
Please visit my website at http://www.time4youfitness.com/
