Tag Archives: Rest

December 17, 2018

REST DAYS.

Your muscles need recovery time to be able to repair, change and function properly before your next training session. Overworked muscles, damaged muscles and muscles that have worked hard will need some kind of downtime, but most of the time a good night’s sleep is all that is required.

You can train every day, provided you don’t hyperload the same muscle groups and don’t put the same pressure on them several days in a row. That in fact, is the best and the fastest way to make fitness part of your lifestyle.

The problem with complete rest days, blank days on the calendar where you virtually do no exercise whatsoever, is that your mind wanders and if you are not into fitness already, you have higher chances of dropping out and giving up. One day without training, can potentially be the last day of your entire fitness journey. One day can become two, then three then a week and then a month – once you stop, it is harder to get back into it.

If you’ve ever jogged, you know how much harder it is to start after a complete stop – it is always more preferable to slow down without losing momentum instead of taking a break. It is the same with regular exercise – it is always more preferable to slow down than do nothing for a day. Even if you do stretching, yoga, or a bit of light walking, it will still register in your mind as exercise and keep you tuned.

Whatever you do, don’t stop. There are other ways to rest your muscles and recover: get more sleep, stay hydrated and up your protein intake (before and post-workout). If you don’t overtrain to the point of muscle failure you won’t need to take complete days off so it is important that you stay on the level of training when you push yourself just enough to feel challenged but not so hard that it is painful to move the next day.

Most of us these days simply don’t move enough, we drive everywhere, we sit at our desks all the time and then we rest in front of the TV. Our lives are getting more stationary and it is more important than ever to introduce as much activity on a daily basis as possible and make it the norm.

Exercise becomes fun when it becomes enjoyable, but to get to that point you need to get used to it first. You can’t view it as being a chore you hate coming back to – this will just make you want to quit. Try to think of exercise as something you are slowly integrating into your lifestyle rather than another chore to add to your list of things ‘To Do’.

Everyone struggles in the beginning but those who see it through eventually get to the fun part of it, the enjoyable part when it becomes the way to rest from everyday tasks and feel a little more energised.

November 23, 2015

HOW MANY REST DAYS DO I NEED?

Bored

A common mistake of people new to exercising – and even among experienced exercisers – is to workout too hard, too often. Overtraining can effect your health. By not allowing for proper rest periods in your workout routine, it is far more likely that you don’t adhere to your exercise habit, due to feeling poorly, excess fatigue or soreness, or even injury, if you aren’t allowing your body to heal in between workouts.

So how many rest days do you really need a week?
The number of rest days that you take each week depends on how intensely you train, especially relative to your fitness level. As a rule, if a muscle group is still sore from a previous workout, do not train it intensely again until it has healed and is no longer sore.

For example, if my thighs are sore from a lower body strength workout I did yesterday, I should not train them again today – or the next, if they are still very sore. In this case, it doesn’t mean I have to take a complete rest day; I could train my upper body or core, or stick to light cardio, yoga, stretching, etc.

Balancing your workouts to target different muscle groups on different days of the week allows you to take fewer rest days, but even then, you should save at least 1-2 days a week for rest, or at least active rest or active recovery.

What is active rest or active recovery? 
You don’t have to spend your whole ‘rest day’ on the sofa! Light physical activity on a rest day can help boost your mood, your health, and your progress or ability to maintain your weight or fitness level.

If you’re looking to stay active even on your rest days, a good rule is that the activity should not be something that would cause you sore muscles. Whether you’re walking, swimming, doing yoga, stretching, etc, it should be at a reduced intensity from your normal workouts.

What happens if I over-exercise?
If you don’t include enough rest into your workout programme, you are putting yourself at risk for overtraining, which increases your chances of health repercussions and otherwise avoidable injuries.

The best thing you can do is to listen to your own body; if you think it might be asking for more rest, don’t think that listening to that request means that you’re a failure or ‘slacking’. Rest is an important part of fitness and can be what makes the hard work you put towards your goals count.

Overtraining symptoms are diverse and different for each person, but here are a few symptoms you should watch out for:

  • Depression
  • Loss of appetite
  • Severe fatigue
  • Slower healing & longer recovery times
  • Changes in mood and ability to focus or concentrate
  • Amenorrhea – missed or very irregular periods
  • Aches & pains – particularly of the joints
  • Depressed immune system – increased chance of catching colds and other infections
  • Changes in performance – if you find yourself moving slower, lifting less than you’re normally able to, having to take more rest breaks and generally not pushing yourself as hard as you normally do, you could be overtraining.