Too tired from a long day? Too sore from yesterday’s workout? We’ve all come up with — sometimes legitimate — excuses to bail on a sweat session, at one point in time. But, while many of our reasons to skip out on a class or gym trip seem believable, every now and then, we pull the dog-ate-my-homework workout excuse trick.
A new survey conducted on behalf of Peerfit looked directly at the most elaborate excuses people have given to skip the gym, and you bet the fitness community got creative.
The typical excuses — being too tired, too hot, too cold, or eating too recently — all made the top of the list, and those are fairly reasonably. Hey, they could even be reasons we’ve used to cancel our classes before.
Lack of fun, being too sweaty, or not seeing results after workouts also made the list, and all are ways we’ve lost motivation to keep going on a healthy plan.
But when it comes to the most out-of-left-field excuses, we were not disappointed. Here are the survey’s craziest excuses:
- My cat is on fire
- My pancreas hurts
- My downstairs is flooded (it wasn’t)
- I called my instructor and told him I had to take my son’s bicycle into service
- I exercised in my dreams
- I stubbed my pinky toe
Yes, pain is undoubtedly a reason to skip a workout — and managing and preventing injuries should be a significant part of our wellness plan — but fake floods and dream exercising, not so much.
But on the flip-side, those who were able to power through their excuses and near class misses admitted that they felt much better post-sweat. And when it comes to accountability, and making sure that you’ll actually show up for the class you booked, far and away the best way to work out better would be with a partner.
So grab your fitness accountability friend, schedule workout time together, and don’t let the other slack off. That could be the secret to ditching these far-fetched excuses, once and for all.
