Better to lift when sick or hung over or wait a day?

[Tacos Gigante]

Hi Coach Rip,

I am on the novice PP program and was wondering if it is better to lift on a scheduled day even if you were sick/hung over (nothing major, but enough to keep me from being 100%) or wait a day so I can go in at full strength.

Best,

Tacos

[FKYT]

A little sick = OK
Very sick = wait a day

The general rule of thumb I use is that if I'm sick enough to call in sick to work, I take that day off from lifting as well.

[Greg C]

If you feel well enough to go to the gym, do this: Go warm up. If you feel ok after that, then lift. If not, go home and rest.

[Wannabeatank]

Do a contrast shower as soon as you wake up, then before you go to the gym do another one. You should feel good to lift then.

[Valhall]

Hangovers tend to stick for 2 days for me, thats why I moved my training schedule from a mon-wed-fri to tue-thur-sat.

[dsp]

generally sun-tues-thurs works best for me. i have two days to recover from any messing around that happens. i still make sure i eat enough meat though.

then again i dont really get hangovers, or i can train through them.

[funguyrye]

My wife always says, big boy last night, big boy today. If you are committed to working out, other then a hemorrhoid the size of New Mexico will stop me. If it is something other then self induced, then gauge it yourself. Sometimes a good, cold sweat is all your body needs to fight whatever ails you at that time.

[Gunnhild Bruno]

There is all kinds of anecdotal lore about guys pulling PRs when hung over. So I will agree with the advice to go to the gym and see what happens.

As long as you've had enough sleep or are young enough to be OK for training while being sleep deprived. If you need to ask, you're probably young enough to get away with it. When you're not, you just know.

[utexas61]

Going to the gym hungover is fine.

But going when you know you are actually sick deserves you a kick in the nuts.

[bowdirk]

When you are a little sick or hungover you should do some Triactin.

-Bowdirk