Taking a Break.....from working out

Wow! a Personal trainer, someone who just ABSOLUTELY Loooooves to train, workout out hard core, feels empty when NOT working out......

is taking a break from training???!!!

Yes! Yes, I am taking this week off from training, giving my body a break and going back hard next week. Does this mean I will gain weight, lose my gains, and let myself go? NO, its just a week. It didn't take me a week to get results, so nor will it take me a week to lose it all.

Why am I taking this time away from training if I love it so much? My reason is because I have been pushing myself TOO much. Most days working out twice in a day, going heavy strength training then followed by intense high intensity training. And lately no matter how much sleep I've been getting, I have been So damn tired. Yes when I work out, afterwards I feel great, I feel awake and energized....but then it goes away and I'm back to tired.
So much so, that honestly I gave myself more rest days last week than I usually do. and for me "Rest days" is SUCH a challenge, because I feel I HAVE to get my training in, even if its short, or I will DIE!!! I even work out in the weekend, but this past weekend I lacked motivation and quite frankly didnt care if I missed my workouts. I DID however train Legs on Monday, in intensions of going back hard this week. But, I said to myself, "I think I'm just gonna leave it at that for this week, let my body rest and just go back at it next week".
And a big part of my lack of motivation and no energy is also because I'm getting sick. Now, normally I work out even when sick, as long as I have the energy. But I dont go as heavy as I normally do.
But this time its different, I can just feel it in my body, that it just doesn't want to work out. It wants and NEEDS the rest. And I am going to practice what I preach, and "listen to the body". Letting it rest, recover. Then going back at it next week.

Is there such a thing as "Over training"?

YES! My case is an example. The body NEEDS its rest and recovery time. During a workout, you train your body, strength train and do high intensity training to change the body, to build lean muscle. But the body doesn't change During a work out....it changes and develops during Recovery time. Its during that time while the body is at rest where all the magic happens.
NOW, I am not saying to workout One day, give yourself 5 days of rest then workout your second day and that's it. No, no, no. That won't work either. You do need at least 3-4 days of exercise in your week to see greater and faster results. I am saying, know how to balance it out.
Give your body ample time to recover from your past workout before you work it out again. Especially if you do full body workouts.

Can you workout when you are sick?

Yes and no. As I mentioned before, I usually do workout when I'm sick. But that's usually because I only have a sore throat and congestion. If my head hurts I usually turn it down a notch and just focus on my body moving. A light workout, could still be a great workout. You need to be able to feel Good when working out, and actually feel a bit better after you have completed the workout.
You need to be the one to decide if your body can accomplish the task of working out.
If you are sick where you just can't get up and your energy is completely gone and just feel heavy, etc....DO NOT workout! Just rest it off. Maybe try walking around a bit and see how you feel. If you are really sick, the walking alone is strainious.
So you have to be the judge of if your body is up and willing to go through a training session.

And here is my advice:

If you feel your body needs rest....Let it rest! Don't force it. Because if you force it, you won't get the best out of that workout. You want to be able to get the most out of your workouts. But if its just going to make you feel worse, then lay back down, rest. See how you feel the next day. Sometimes you may need a couple days of rest. And thats OK.
If this is the case, make sure you don't lay around eating like CRAP the whole enitre time that you are resting. heck, most likely you won't really have an appetitie. Just make sure to drink lots of fluids, try to get some good foods in your system to fuel it up and help with recovery. Chicken soup can never go wrong when sick ;)

So LISTEN to your body. (Which is my own advice that I will finally take).

 Stay Healthy,
Lisett