Why shouldn't you skip workouts?

Author: Timko Ilya - master of the whole project and fitness trainer.
2015-01-18

Everyone knows that skipping workouts is bad. Many even have a rough idea why. Thus, in this article, I simply want to add some specifics to this question. More precisely, I want to look at it from the perspective of human physiology.

So, you’ve started training. Whether it's 2, 3, or 4 times a week – it doesn’t matter. What’s important is that you’ve begun to give your body physical activity with a certain regularity. And your body has started to adapt to these loads. This is what is known as being trained. The better your body adapts to certain physical loads, the better trained it is.

In addition, the average daily energy expenditure also increases. It’s important to understand that you expend more energy not only on the day you train but also on the days you rest. Because during this time recovery processes are occurring in the body.

Since your energy expenditure has increased, the caloric intake has also increased. This means your appetite has grown – you’ve started to eat more. This results in an acceleration of metabolism.

I think the overall picture is clear. Now, let’s discuss – what is the downside of skipping a workout if you’re pursuing a specific goal.

If You’re Losing Weight or Cutting

I think you understand that each of your workouts makes you expend more energy and keeps your metabolism at an optimal level. Now imagine that you skip 1 to 2 workouts.

By missing these workouts, you haven’t expended that additional energy. Your energy expenditure drops back to the baseline level (the body has already recovered, but there hasn’t been a new workout). However, it’s important to note that metabolism speeds up and slows down not in 1 or 2 days; this change happens much more slowly.

This means that if you skip a workout, your body will slowly start gaining fat over the next 1-3 days. If you skip a workout once every few months, it’s not a big deal. Missing one workout is not catastrophic. However, if you skip 3-4 workouts in a month, the effectiveness of your training can drop to almost zero. It becomes a step forward, a step back.

If You’re Gaining Muscle Mass

In this case, many might exclaim: “Well, this is easier! You can skip some sessions. Nothing bad will happen.” But it’s not that simple. There’s another factor to consider.

In the article Phases of recovery after workouts, I already mentioned that there are specific phases of recovery. After you train, your body takes several days to recover. Then, for a short period (2-4 days), it enters a phase of “supercompensation.” This means that during this period, your muscles become stronger, more enduring, or larger, depending on the focus of your training.

Ideally, the next workout for those muscles should be done during this phase. Because after this phase (if the muscles haven’t been loaded again), performance will drop back to the baseline level.

As many of you know, it’s better to train for mass using a split routine. This means working on one or several muscle groups during each session, until you’ve trained all your muscles over the course of the week.

Now, let’s say you skipped one workout. What should you do? If you decide to make up for it during your next session, all your subsequent workouts will have to be shifted. However, your body has already adapted to a specific training rhythm. You might miss the supercompensation phases for all your exercises. Or you might not. It’s a bit of a gamble.

If you simply skip the missed workout, you will definitely miss the supercompensation phase for that muscle group, but your schedule for other workouts will remain intact.

My advice is: if you rarely skip workouts (once a month or less), then simply ignore the missed session. If you skip often (several times a month), make up the missed workout, effectively shifting all the others.

Now, I hope you understand that for muscle-building, it’s crucial not to skip workouts to avoid missing the supercompensation phase. Otherwise, it will be a “step back” at least for those muscles you missed.

Conclusions

Success in any endeavor is achieved through consistency. This means that over a unit of time, you expend the same amount of effort consistently and steadily. This principle applies not only to training but to any endeavor you undertake.

I personally NEVER skip workouts. If I’m sick or not feeling well, I will still train, even if it's just a little. Even if I simply warm up. But I don’t skip workouts. If I can't train in the evening, I’ll go in the morning. If I can’t train that day, I’ll go the next day.

However, I do take a break for one month each year when I stop training altogether. But that's a completely different story. Good luck!