Everyday Fitness

I never miss a day at the gym but today I felt so tired I didn't go. This was the first time in 7 months that I ever missed a day. Will it cause me to gain fat because I didn't do a lot of walking today, maybe 60 minutes of activity all day? I took in less calories than usual... Is this ok?

This above quote from the BodyBuilding.com Forums, inspired by a similar conversation I had with a friend recently.

Alright alright, I know I made a big fuss about exercise being a part of your life, and not skipping days. However, there's a line that needs to be recognized. If you are legitimately too tired and sore from your last work out, your body may benefit from an additional days rest. So even if you're used to exercising say, Mon-Wed-Fri, maybe one time you just aren't ready to exercise Friday after Wednesday's workout. Maybe you need to push that workout to Saturday instead. And that's perfectly fine, because there's a lot of factors that go into recovery: what time of day you work out, the food you eat, other physical work you do outside the gym, how much sleep you get, etc.

Matter of fact, I like taking a whole week off every few months to give my body a complete rest; this is called deloading. Deloading can trick you though! It's like my mind equates post-workout soreness with being bigger and stronger. So once that soreness leaves by the end of a deload, I feel small and weak; don't let this fool you. Once you do get back to the gym, you'll hit the weights with the fury of an angry god!