Skip a a session? Or tough it out?

[mikeweinberg]

I'm an experienced lifter (I'm 45 have have been lifting weights since I was 16) and know my way around barbells. I just started SS because Rip's books and radio and youtube content is so compelling, and I needed a change of pace / catalyst. So I started with beginner phase 1 from scratch, and I'm now a couple weeks into phase 2. I'm currently at Bench: 3x5@265, Squat: 3x5@360, DL: 2x5@445, Press: 3x5@180, Powerclean: 5x2@190.

So my question is: if you're feeling under the weather, and you know you aren't going to be able to incrementally increase weight in a particular session, is it better to skip and rest/recover? Or is it better to back off the weight a little and power through. I'm the type of person who firmly believes that those days on it's difficult are the most important days to push through and train anyway, so my instinct is option 1. In other words, some workout is better than no workout. But I'm just curious that since SS is all about small incremental improvement, would option 2 be better?

Now when I say "under the weather", I do NOT mean I'm simply not motivated, or not "feeling it". Example: about a week ago, I was nursing a cold, and I slept crappy for a few nights in a row. On the Monday morning I woke up, dragged my butt down to my basement and started the squat-bench-deadlift session, knowing that I wasn't going to be able to even do the weight I had done on Friday, nevermind increase. So...I did the workout, but I backed off the weight from my previous session (about 5% less).

So what say you? Skip and rest? Or do it anyway with lower weight?

[Nockian]

Depends on the severity of the illness. I go the the gym with a mild cold, or a bit of a stomach bug and see how it goes. If I feel fine after the warmups then I just carry on with the programme. However, if I'm coughing so hard that I can't get a breath, or I feel terrible, then I go home and nurse myself. You can actually push a virus into the heart if you just tough it out, that would put the training on hold for a long time.

[Matt James]

I go by my resting heart rate that day. If it's around normal I do the workout. If it's 15 clicks higher (which seems about the norm *for me* when I'm fighting infection), I skip it. I read that advice years ago, not sure where, but I've definitely regretted it when I've ignored it.

[Alexander Dargatz]

Either push the planned workout a day, or reduce volume and power through.

[Erik Y]

I used to just train through whatever it was, and I set a lot of PRs that way. What I found was that sometimes this stopped me from recovering from my illness. At this point, if I’m feeling unwell at that moment, I’ll still train, but if I wake up sick and it sits with me all day, I’ll often train the next day so I can rest up.

Always try sleeping more first, though. I’ve turned days from non-training days into training days by getting a long nap in.