What should you do when you miss two weeks of exercise?

 

The obvious answer to the question what should you do when you miss two weeks of exercise is to get right back at it! But it’s not always easy.

I missed two weeks of my personal training sessions with Andy Wight because of snow storms and a respiratory infection that I’m pretty sure was bronchitis. When I went back last week, my symptoms were nearly gone but I was still a bit weak and easily out of breath. I would have been just as happy to stay home and do nothing. Even walking on the treadmill was a challenge.

Honestly, I think if I hadn’t invited all of you into my discomfort zone, I might have given up. But you’re keeping my motivated and honest, so I forced myself to show up.

Andy says it’s a common tendency for people to give up when they miss several classes in a row. Why bother when I’ve missed so much, they’ll say. It does get you out of your rhythm and disrupts the great habit you’d begun to develop, but Andy assured me all was not lost.

“It’s one of those things where you’re not going to lose a ton. At most, your cardiovascular endurance will be affected but your overall strength shouldn’t be affected too much in that time period.”

You don’t necessarily want to start where you left off. If you still have some lingering signs and symptoms you might not want to go full speed ahead right away.

“You want to work on slowly getting back into it because there’s a fine line between doing too much and not enough. There have also been reports that doing exercises even while you’re still recovering from your sickness can help with your body’s ability to overcome it. What’s important it to be your own advocate for your body.”

In my case, last week we stayed away from most of the cardiovascular exercises.

“I don’t want to exacerbate anything, make anything worse especially if you have a respiratory issue. Doing anything that’s going to irritate your lungs could be counterproductive. You may not get the most out of the training.”

So I didn’t work up much of a sweat last week and didn’t get too winded. That doesn’t mean Andy didn’t put me through my paces. Had to do some squats, which aren’t my favorites yet and he had me try something new — the kettlebell rack walk.

The kettlebell rack walk helps a lot with posture. When you’re holding the kettle balls it forces you to walk tall. It also engages your core abs as you’re taking each step.

It really becomes beneficial when you find the right weight — when you can feel everything through your whole mid section and upper body kind of engaging all at once.

I felt it and it felt great. I’m so glad I didn’t wimp out and decide to quit!