At what point do you take a break?

I've had a lot of people ask me when I take a break..when do I not workout?

The answer to that is that I really never take a 100% break for an extended time, but I do vary what I do in levels of intensity throughout the week, from program to program, and month to month.

The key to keeping your body from getting on a plateau is to change things up. This goes for nutrition as well as workouts.  You can't do the same thing forever, your body adapts to it.   I found this to be particularly true after 5 rounds of P90X then my first round of Insanity.  Both programs are hard in their different ways, but after so long my body was just used to doing a hyper-intense workout all the time, and my mind was fried from it.  I found myself asking, "Do I have to workout this hard, 6 days per week, for the rest of my life to maintain this level of fitness?"  

The answer is no.  If you're training for an event, you prep for it hard, then after the event you have to back off.  Same thing with intense programs; you have to back off and do something easier for a while so your body doesn't completely adapt.  You have to make sure that "Over the top, workout 'til you puke" is the new normal for your body.   If you let that become the new normal, it becomes harder and harder to push the envelope and you end up actually losing some of your fitness level.

I follow the macrocycle theme:  I'll do a 90 day program, then back off for a few weeks and do some easier workouts.   I'll workout really hard for a month, then easier for a week.   Every 4-6 weeks I take a "Recovery Week," which doesn't mean doing nothing, it means getting some much needed recovery time.  Your body needs that just as much, if not more, than it does the shredding workouts.