Good morning everyone and as always happy Thursday.
This week I wanted to share with you a mistake I recently made that ended up costing me a couple of workouts and completely threw off my weekly workout routine – and how I should have handled that situation.
And why do I want to share this with you?
Because one of the best ways to learn in life is to learn is from our mistakes – and because it’s far better to learn from other peoples mistakes!
So I hope that after reading today’s piece you’ll be a bit wiser and better equipped to handle a very common situation that if handled incorrectly (As yours truly just did!) can really throw off your workout routine.
Okay, here we go!
Personally, I firmly believe in balancing my more regimented, health and fitness focused side with fun, socializing and the occasional night out.
So, a few Saturdays ago, as it had been over a month since I had seen a number of my friends, I organized a guy’s night out.
Now the guy’s night was not the mistake, it was great and much needed!
The mistake came at 11:30PM when we walked out of our 2nd bar of the night and a few of us decided to head home.
See, here I had a decision to make; follow the first group, call it a night after just a few drinks, head home and get some sleep and guarantee that I’d be fresh for my morning commitments and afternoon workout… Or move onto the next bar?
Well, I think you know what I choose… Onto the next bar!
Long story short, I stumbled into my house at around 3AM, crashed without of drinking any water and woke-up the next morning (Which was Sunday for the record. There is no way I could do this on a weekday) totally dehydrated and with bombs going off in my head.
Despite my best intentions, I got absolutely zero work done that Sunday and was absolutely not in anyway, shape, or form, ready to try to bench press, do pull-ups, or do anything for that matter more physically demanding than moving from one position on the couch to another.
(Had I actually tried to workout…? I’m pretty sure I would have just cried, thrown-up and passed out…)
Not good.
So naturally I told myself I would just move my workout to Monday.
Problem solved right?
Nope! I didn’t get my workout in that Monday either.
Why?
Because my normally super busy Monday was even busier because I had to catch up on the work I was supposed to have gotten done on Sunday.
And even more annoying, I had now thrown off my entire workout order.
See, I specifically arrange my workout schedule so that my Saturday and Tuesday workouts are lower body workouts and my Sunday and Wednesday workouts are upper body workouts.
(This is actually important if you are lifting particularly heavy because you want to be your freshest for your hardest lifts, which normally fall on your lower body day.)
So there I was on Tuesday, having missed my Sunday upper body workout, unable to get it in on Monday and with a lower body workout on the schedule for that afternoon.
Clearly I had a problem.
So what did I do?
I ended up skipping my Tuesday workout as well so I could continue on Wednesday with my regularly scheduled upper body workout without disrupting my normal, and I feel important, workout order.
So by the time I got back into the gym that Wednesday I had missed two workouts and was still tired and run down from destroying myself that Saturday night.
Grrr!
Now, the moral of this story is not that you shouldn’t go out with your friends or have a night that involves throwing back a couple of drinks. Not at all, fun and socializing are super important for a balanced and healthy life.
The moral of this story is that if you are a busy, hardworking New Yorker over the age of 30, and are serious about your health and fitness, when you do have a social event and a night out with your friends, you need to balance that night with the next day’s commitments and your upcoming workouts.
Don’t be like me. Don’t be stupid.
Don’t think you’ll be able to stay out until 3AM in the morning drinking like a college freshman and think you’ll be able to bounce back the next day, knock out your commitments and get any sort of valuable workout in.
It isn’t going to happen!
When you have a social event planned, go for it and have a great time, but leave on the earlier side and keep your alcohol intake limited to two or three drinks maximum.
Doing so will enable you to maintain high quality workouts while equally balancing your social life and friendships.
In-turn, that balance will enable you to build a strong, lean and healthy body without turning into some sort of maniac who only works, exercises and eats grilled chicken and kale nine times a day.
(People – I’ve seen this happen and when it does… it’s ugly.)
Alright, that’s it for today.
See you here next week and as always,
To our health!
Zach