If you’re anything like me, you probably have the occasional weekend where your social calendar gets the best of you and all health and fitness related goals get completely derailed for 2-3 days. This happened to me last weekend – I had a wedding on both Friday and Saturday night, which led to a couple of missed workouts and a sluggish Sunday/Monday. While there is nothing wrong with this (and is likely spent having a ton of fun), managing the return to your normal routines properly can go a long way in preventing a 2-3 day “vacation” from pushing you off course for a week or longer.
- Sleep
Likely the first roadblock to getting back on track is the lack of sleep that typically comes with a few days of partying. Without intervening, most people will sleep in on Monday to try and “catch up” on the lost sleep from the past few days. Unfortunately, there is very little science to prove that catching up on lost sleep is helpful in the long run – though I think most people would agree that sleeping a bit longer can make you feel better the following day. To deal with these contradictory statements I focus on returning to my normal routine first (waking up at my normal time) and getting some extra sleep second – meaning that, if I want more sleep, I go to sleep earlier rather than waking up later. If I must choose between the two, I will take a normal night of sleep and wake up at my regular time on Monday morning.
- Hydration
The next most important thing to keep track of is your hydration – making a point of staying hydrated throughout the weekend, especially on Sunday, will go a long way in how you feel when you get back on Monday. Getting some electrolytes will make the biggest difference - even a single drink or packet per day (whatever your preferred source may be, I use LMNT) is enough to make a significant and noticeable difference in how you feel during and after the weekend. Try to target 500-1,000 mg of sodium per day.
- Workouts
There are two main issues that likely arise after these weekends – that you may have skipped a workout or two you originally planned for the weekend and how to muster up the energy to do your Monday workout.
When it comes to the skipped workouts – obviously, the best thing to do is plan for these weekends and schedule a day(s) off or something easier/shorter. Since its probably already Sunday or Monday, though, its too late for that! As I’ve discussed in the past, a few days away from normal training is going to have exactly 0 negative impact on your fitness – just skip these workouts and move on. Trying to make them up by cramming the following week is recipe for injury and not worth it.
For the daunting workout ahead (Monday), my experience tells me that you are rarely as physically impacted by these weekends as you are mentally. This is the time for discipline to takeover, the workout that people are always talking about – the one that you don’t want to do but do anyways. JUST DO IT. You will likely perform better than expected and almost certainly feel better when its done (likely physically, but definitely mentally).
The only thing left to do once you are fully back into the routine is consider whether there are any ways to mitigate some of the detrimental effects of a party-filled weekend. This is going to look different for everyone and each weekend, depending on the occasion. To give some examples of what these strategies could look like:
- If you are training for a race – try to align that particular weekend with a recovery week so that the scheduled training is minimal or non-existent
- Commit to doing SOMETHING – a portion of your training, a long walk as a substitute, or an easier replacement that can be done at home/on the road
- If you have one day in the weekend to pick as your off day, always choose Sunday – I find it much harder to get something done the later it is in the weekend
- Try to get your session in first thing in the morning – sometimes procrastinating by just an hour or two will prevent you from doing anything that day
These are just some examples of things that I have done depending on the activities. Its important to remember that a few days off won’t kill all your gains and that, if you are disciplined on Monday morning, you can likely jump right back into your routine without missing a beat!