🥺 Miss Your Workout? Read This.

Did you miss a day of workouts? Don't Sweat it. Here's what to do next.

Good Morning!

I am officially out of office for the week, so anyone e-mailing me after this newsletter may not receive a response until Tuesday, May 21.

Newsletter Summary

• Why missing workouts is not the end of the world

• How long you can actually go without losing progress

• How even just semi-consistent exercise literally changes your DNA

So, You Missed Your Workout. Tsk, Tsk…

A common question I receive among the many clients I work with is one about missing workouts.

Whether it's a sick day, a vacation, or simply not feeling like exercising (being too sore is a valid excuse, in my book), missed workouts are not as bad as you think.

Psychologically, it makes sense why someone could guilt themselves for slacking for a day or two. Some have speculated that as few as two missed workouts are the magic number for falling entirely out of rhythm.

However, this is a complex metric since "exercise motivation" is highly subjective.

Rest assured -- you can take off for a week and not lose any of the muscular gains you've made over the weeks, months, or years you've been training. A 2015 study from the University of Copenhagen found that fit subjects who took more than two weeks off lost about 1/4 of their muscle strength during the extended break period.

So, in theory, you have a two-week cushion before the gains disappear. However, this is only theoretical.

News Flash: Everybody is Different

Still, everyone will react differently to missed time in the gym.

That Copenhagen U study is just one of (likely) hundreds performed on resistance training pauses, which have (likely) all yielded differing results.

Two weeks is a comfortable cushion that will reassure you that your muscles won't deflate like the girl from that 2008 "Above The Influence" commercial.

But some people will lose muscle and strength faster than others. Some will lose it slowly. This is likely due to genetics; these muscular changes will depend on how active your ancestors have been and how muscular your ancestors were.