I little while back I read a training article about current Mr. Olympia Dexter Jackson and in the article he said something very important.

He said that whenever he feels a little twinge when training he takes a week sometimes two weeks off from training and he never has had a major injury.

Please don’t quote me on the above statement as I am doing it from memory so I doubt that is EXACTLY what he said. However it is what he does when he feels a twinge somewhere:

HE TAKES OFF FROM TRAINING!

Yes, I know most of you can’t even think of taking a week off from training (I agree as I can’t imagine it either) let alone two—however think about this for a minute, Mr. Jackson has been a professional bodybuilder for a long time and has steadily moved up the ladder and now he is Mr. O.

So I think he is worth listening to.

Plus, consider the alternative—if you continue to “push through it” and boom you tear something—I think your training will be disrupted for way more than two weeks.

So the next time you just ground out ten hard reps in the squat and something in your right quad just does not feel right—consider ending your workout right then—you might just prevent a minor ding from turning into a major injury.

STAY SMART