What Should You Do If You Miss a Workout?

We get a lot of questions about what to do if you miss a workout. Sometimes workouts get skipped because you’re sick. Or because you’re traveling.

Or for some other reason, like your dog ate the P90X disc.

If you miss a day (or two, or three), just get back at it as if nothing happened, starting with the workout you skipped.

But if you’ve missed a week or more of working out, you’ve got a decision to make. You can either start the program over from scratch, or ramp yourself back up to the place you stopped.

Ultimately, when you get back to your program, what you do is really about what will keep you motivated. That said, doing the full program as scheduled is the best way to make sure you get the full benefit from it.

If you just miss a few days, it’s fine to resume where you left off, but if it’s been weeks, you’ve probably lost most of your gains fitness-wise, so it’s worth starting from scratch to get the most possible gains and to avoid injury.

If doing this will crush your motivation, start where you left off, but if you’ve been off more than 5 or 6 days, ramp back up slowly or you’ll risk getting so sore you can hardly move because you’ll have exhausted your fast-twitch muscle fibers. If your program offers a recovery week, start with that.

Miss a workout because you forgot the DVDs? No matter what the reason, you’ll love Beachbody On Demand. You’ll get access to hundreds of world-class Beachbody workout programs — anytime, anywhere.

P.S. Here’s everything you need to know about what’s on Beachbody On Demand and how to use it.