Rest Day

ellietill20

hey hey
I have an exercise bike and originally my aim was to do at least half an hour vigorously every day. But my friends recommend I have a rest day too. Does anyone here have a similar regime?

cynthialsmith2015

Hey, i an new here so take my experience as a newbie! Today is my rest day.i find i burn out if i don't have a rest day.

beemerphile1

Rest days are needed and so is variety. Doing the same effort and the same exercise constantly will result in burnout.

I walk, run, and bicycle on alternating days and still take two rest days every week.

Life is a marathon, not a sprint. Don't make your routine so stringent that it can't be maintained.

4thDegreeKnight

I always try to take two consecutive days to allow my body recover (like Sat/Sun). My trainer has also recommended that every 12 weeks you take a solid week off exercise to really let your body repair and rest.

To take pressure off the same muscles over and over, I try to mix up my cardio as well, Bike one day, treadmill the other, elliptical the next. They all may hit legs, but one may cause me to work one area harder than the other.

Just my two cents.

snarlingcoyote

Some people are perfectly happy and healthy exercising every day. Some people want a rest day. It's up to you.

I prefer to take a rest day to let my muscles recuperate. Also, there was a study published about 3 years ago (I'm guessing) that found that, in a group of older ladies (I'm a middle-aged lady, so close enough for me!), their RMR/BMRs were higher if they worked out 4 times a week or 2 times a week than if they worked out 7 days a week. (I will have to look up the reference this evening, if anyone wants it.) Not a lot higher, but higher. I need the rest day or my bursitis acts up anyway, and this makes me feel a bit better about enjoying a day of no exercise!

hdrenollet

Take a rest day or two - especially when starting out. At one point, I was working out for 3 hours every day and I got to the point of actually craving the workout. I still gave myself a rest day every week. Although, it wasn't necessarily a pure rest day, more of a recovery day. I would do a lot of stretching, and yoga-type exercises so I was still active, but allowing my body time to recover from the stress that I put on it throughout the week.

Just listen to your body. Start off slow, maybe 4 days per week at first. Do that for a month, then if you feel like you can do more, then add a day. If your body gets burned out, take a rest day and allow your muscles time to recover. Proper warm-up, cool-down, and stretching/recovery prevents injury.

bwogilvie

I would advise beginning by cycling 3-4 days a week, alternating between moderate intensity (at which you can still talk in complete sentences fairly easily) and low intensity (seems like walking, you can sing). If you haven't been on a bike for a while, your butt is not going to be happy for a week or two.... What you want to do at first is start the process of adaptation to the bike for your muscles and joints. On days off, you can cross train.

After a couple of months, you can throw in some higher intensity rides, either HIIT (high-intensity interval trainings) that would involve short bursts of riding as hard as you can followed by longer, but still short, recovery intervals, or tempo rides at which you ride for 20+ minutes at a speed where talking in complete sentences is just barely possible.

Remember, "rest" is relative. As a beginner, a day off is restful. As you train, "rest" can involve doing the activity at low intensity. I cycle 50-150 miles a week depending on season and how much running and hiking I'm doing, and for me, a 20-mile ride at 12 mph with my wife is basically a rest day (or "active recovery" day); my heart rate is about the same as a leisurely stroll, around 90 bpm. For her, that's a moderately intense workout. These days, it's rare that I have more than three days a month when I haven't done some aerobic activity: cycling, running, XC skiing, hiking, walking, snowshoeing.... But only 2 or 3 workouts a week, if that, are intense, and almost never more than 2 for any given activity.

A 6-day workout schedule for someone who's not brand new but hasn't had a lot of experience might involve:

Day 1: moderate workout
Day 2: intense workout (intervals or tempo)
Day 3: easy workout (active recovery) or cross train
Day 4: moderate workout
Day 5: intense workout
Day 6: easy workout
Day 7: rest

Unless cycling is a goal in itself, though, I think it would be better to do more cross training. Cycling isn't weight bearing, so it won't do anything to strengthen your bones; in fact, professional cyclists who do a lot of riding are at higher risk of osteoporosis than other men or women their age.