Recently I received an email from a client. He is a soccer player and I designed a workout program that would help improve his speed, as well as his ability to sustain higher speeds throughout the game.

The email said this…

“I did receive your workout schedule but have had trouble beginning it on time due to work hours changing this week and being very tired. Should I skip the workouts I missed? I don’t know what to do.”

This is actually pretty common, and it can happen at the start of a program or any time during a program as things come up in your life. So if you’ve missed some of your workouts and you’re feeling bad about it, here’s an idea.

If you’re just starting, push back the start of your program a few days so you start on track. Once you’ve started, just skip workouts you miss (or get them in the next day if you can). Don’t try to reschedule them at the expense of pushing back the whole training timeline.

A good program has the flexibility that you can miss a small percentage of the workouts and still be “on track”. After all, the point of a goal is to lead you in the right direction, not to set unreasonable standards. If you achieve 90% or 80% of your goal, it should still be a substantial improvement, and then you’ve done what you set out to do in the first place.