Let me preface this by saying, the volume of your workout, your physical and mental well-being and what your goals are, are all pretty good indicators of how many rest days you should take. ‘Volume’ simply means the weight x reps x sets.
How would you know you’re doing too much volume? Quite frankly, you’ll feel pretty beat up. Your body will feel heavy, it might be difficult to do daily tasks, you might feel tired or low energy or you’ll have aches, pains and other symptoms of fatigue. Also, you’re in the gym almost everyday and you focus on heavy weights, lots of reps and lots of sets, aka ‘Go Hard or Go Home’. And the most important factor, you’re relatively new to the gym (less than a year).
How does your physical and mental well-being come into it? You have brain fog, you’re not eating enough calories to support recovery and weight gain/weight loss, you’re don’t address your mobility or do your warm-ups and you’re starting to despise the thought of going to the gym. If you’d like more on recovery, two articles are a good place to start. 1, 2
And finally, your goals. Are you looking to lose weight? Or build muscle? Either way, the time you spend outside the gym is when the actual magic happens. So rest days are a must if you want to see results.
Now, how important are rest days? We know how important recovery is, so rest days are simply another factor in the recovery equation. If you still haven’t read the articles, the one on training volume and physical recovery methods can be especially beneficial if you’re looking to really make long-term progress.
Here’s what a rest day will do for you:
- It will energize your mind and relax your body and mind. Put simply, exercising is stressful on your body and, even your mind. You need to put in the work, then pull back a bit, rinse and repeat. There’s no point busting your butt day in and day out when you’re already fatigued because it causes a host of issues down the road, including injury and strains.
- It will give your body time to recover. A rest day is the best time to get a massage, take a long bath or simply do nothing. Your body, when fed sufficiently, will recover, build muscle and burn fat, all while doing nothing. It’s magical.
- It will help you put your priorities in line. All those books that you need to catch up on? Errands you need to run? Now’s your time. Let’s face it, working out takes a good chunk out of our day, that could be used for other things. Of course, exercise is absolutely necessary however, it is time consuming and when we prioritize exercise above all else, our other priorities take the back-burner.
- It gives you time outside the gym. This is super important. Weight, body image and fitness, are all so important however, it’s important to realize that there’s life outside those categories. There’s more to life than losing weight, eating healthy and going to the gym. Enjoy time with your friends, watch your favorite TV show, or sleep in. Give yourself the utmost time to do nothing. Alternatively, you could spend time with friends doing active recovery activities, such as walking, hiking, swimming, mountain climbing! Whatever your heart desires!
- It will make you hate exercising less. Maybe you’re not one of those people who wakes up at 5 am and happily carries their gym back everywhere they go. Maybe you absolutely despise the thought of the gym and exercising and dieting and you wish it would all go to hell. And even after all of that, maybe you still put in the work. A rest day will give you peace of mind, and time to be away from the gym and not feel guilty. You’ve put in the work now you all you have to do is rest.
So let’s say you’re training 3 to 5 days a week. That means, you have two days to spend as you please. Remember, active recovery is your friend. It’s important that your diet is not completely abandoned so make sure you’re getting enough protein and hitting your calorie intake.
Happy Recovering Friends! Is there anything you absolutely must do on your rest days? Let me know!
Marie
Marie Writes (A Fitness Blog) 