Buzz
In the world of fitness, the advice to ‘listen to your body’ often comes up when deciding what to do if you're feeling off. This typically gives you permission to take a break, which can certainly be a good choice in many situations.
However, ‘listening to your body’ doesn’t mean it’s always about taking a break if you're not at 100%. It implies a dynamic where our minds urge us to push forward, while our bodies can be stubborn—sometimes moving, sometimes resisting.
Our bodies are strong, resilient, and full of potential. By truly listening to what your body tells you, you might realize you’re capable of much more than you thought. Yes, your body knows when it needs rest, but it also knows when it’s ready to rise to the occasion.
Give It a Try
Anyone who’s been working out for a while has likely experienced something like this: I didn’t feel great, but I went ahead and showed up for my workout. Once I got moving, I actually felt much better and even ended up hitting a new personal best. If you can’t relate, ask around. It’s happened to me more than once, and it’s bound to happen to you if you give yourself the chance.
Here’s how I handle days when I'm feeling sore, worn out, or a bit off:
No matter what, if I’ve got a workout scheduled, I show up.
I don’t let my mind predict how my body will feel; I wait to listen to what my body is telling me.
Now imagine it’s squat day, but I’ve made some poor decisions. Maybe I overworked my quads yesterday, and didn’t sleep enough last night. I’m feeling sluggish, tired, and my legs are sore when I take the stairs.
But I still show up. I know that I’ve had plenty of good workouts on what I thought would be bad days, and if I don’t squat today that will mess up my schedule for the rest of the week. (If I have flexibility in my week to swap a hard day with an easy day, I might do that, but I’m not going to straight up skip a workout.)
Then what? I start warming up. I pick up the empty bar and do a few squats with it. I ask myself how I feel. So far so good? If so, I proceed.
Now, I might be thinking the whole time “Ugh, I probably won’t do anywhere near the numbers I was planning for today.” But I know that if I reach a weight that I truly cannot do, I’ll back off. So I keep going.
I load some more weight on the bar, and ask my body: how does this feel? If it’s fine, I add more. How about this?
You see where this is going. As long as I can do each set safely and without any significant pain, I proceed. I don’t ask myself if I’d like to stop, I ask myself if this is a point where I must stop. More often than not, my body keeps saying “yep, this is okay.”
Soreness typically fades once you’ve warmed up and started moving, so it’s no surprise if I can complete my full workout as planned. (If your routines are designed with RPE, it’s even simpler, as they adjust automatically based on how you feel.)
However, sometimes you might need to do less than what’s planned. Perhaps I’m meant to work up to sets at 80% of my max, but when I reach 75%, I realize that’s all I can do today. That’s perfectly fine; I’ve genuinely listened to my body, and it’s told me what it’s capable of. Essentially, trust in your own strength and resilience. When tuning in to your body, ensure you’re asking it what it *can* do, not just what it can’t.
