After my last workout recap, I was really hoping I would have a good workout week this past week. What I didn’t expect was having to take the entire week off from working out due to being sick. I knew over the weekend that I had a bit of a cold, but I didn’t think it would it would affect my entire week. And maybe if it had been a normal cold, I only would have needed to take one or two days off.
I knew pretty early on Sunday that I would need to take Monday off. I was dealing with a lot of issues with my cold and I knew that showing up when I was coughing that much wouldn’t be a polite thing to do to everyone else. I also knew that I could use extra sleep so sleeping in would be nice.
By Monday night, I was feeling better except for my throat. And because of the swelling in my throat, the pain was really intense and I didn’t feel like I could fully catch my breath. Exercising when you can’t catch your breath isn’t a smart thing to do so I figured I would take another day off. Unfortunately, that continued to be the pattern through the rest of the week.
My throat was starting to get a little better by Thursday, but it was still not great and I knew that I just had to keep taking the week off. I debated going in on days I normally take off, but I decided against that since even by the weekend I wasn’t fully recovered. I don’t want to make any of my symptoms last longer than they have to, so resting was the smartest plan. I could have worked out at home or even at the little gym my condo building has, but I decided to focus on rest and recovery. I did do some stretching workouts, but that’s as intense as I got this past week.
I really hate taking time off from working out. I still am shocked that I say that, but it’s true. It’s become such a part of my routine and I can feel it when I need to work out now. It’s not just about getting to my workout goals each month or year, I really crave working out now. And having to take time off when I could convince myself maybe I should go is tough. When I took the week off because of my foot, that was different. This time, I had to be smart and mature and know that this was the best choice for me.
As I’m writing this, I fully plan on going back this week. I’m still not 100%, but I’m doing significantly better. And I know I’ll need to ease back into things no matter what so going easy this week will be good for a few reasons. There are studies that show that working out can help you get over a cold, but I knew that I needed to wait until it was a bit safer for me to work out. I did get to miss what should be the worse of my pain and nausea by having this past week off, but I know that could continue into this week as well. So I might be dealing with that besides everything else I have. But I know I can handle it because I’ve done that before.
Hopefully, I won’t need to take more time off from working out anytime soon. I know I did the best thing for myself, but it doesn’t make it any easier. I want to get back to my normal and somewhat crazy routine and I hope that happens this week!
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