We are in the middle of the winter (and a pandemic) and there are a million reasons to skip your next workout. You get out of work when it is dark out, you may feel a little under the weather, you are tired, you have other things to do; we get it. In spite of all of that, and we cannot stress this enough, don’t skip your next workout!
This is a sports supplement website, so you may think it a bit biased for us to say that you shouldn’t skip workouts, so let us assure you that this has nothing to do with anything “bro-related.” We aren’t talking about messing up your gains, or missing the pump, or anything like that. We aren’t even saying anything about a potential backwards slide in fitness levels. We are only focused on the stress reducing effects of working out.
We have already discussed the effects of stress in this blog (here and here, why haven’t we won any blog awards yet?), and it may be safe to say that during this time of year, stress levels increase for many (read up on Seasonal Affective Disorder), so it is important to make sure that you maintain any routines that decrease stress. Well sure enough: “Aerobic exercise lengthens telomeres and reduces stress…” That is a pretty straight forward study that shows that exercise reduces stress and lengthens lifespans.
There is no shortage of studies showing the impacts of exercise on stress, one of our favorites examines employee burnout and exercise (read it here). The researchers found that exercise, both aerobic and anaerobic, decreased stress, increased a sense of well-being, and lowered rates of burnouts. To put it simply, working out is one of the best self care routines that you can have.
At this time of year there are countless reasons to skip a workout, especially if you view exercising as something that is in addition to your regular routine. You need to shift that view. Exercise is an act of self care, it reduces stress and increases a sense of well-being. Working out is something that is critical to optimal health and wellness, if you feel like skipping a workout, don’t; even a bad workout is better than skipping one.
*https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S030645301830773X?via%3Dihub
https://peerj.com/articles/891/