What counts as a rest "day"?

_piaffe

If you want a recovery day, do you aim for a calendar day without exercise in a week - so, Sunday for example is a workout-free day - or do you regard any block of 24 consecutive hours without a "workout" as a rest day?

- no exercise Sunday: you work out 6 days in a calendar week

vs

- workout 9:30 a.m. Saturday and not again until 5 p.m. Sunday: you have worked out 7 of 7 days in a week, but have a 36 hour rest "day" / break, without exercise

I know many of us have "active recovery" days (e.g. if cycling is your thing, one day might be a walk and that is a "rest" day). I am counting whatever a true "workout" means to you, whether you are more active ( < true workout) or not.

jjpptt2

I have workout days, recovery days, and rest days... and they are all exactly what they sounds like. They are not random blocks of time - they are a day (from the time I wake up until the time I go to bed) where I either workout, recover, or rest.

Counting hours would be too much work for me.

Or maybe I just don't understand the question.

TR0berts

For me, a rest day is a full day - from the time I wake to the time I go to bed - that I don't work out, other than maybe a walk.

TavistockToad

I walk or do yoga on rest days. Or some days I do absolutely nothing and get less than 1000 steps for the day!

NorthCascades

_piaffe wrote: »

I know many of us have "active recovery" days (e.g. if cycling is your thing, one day might be a walk and that is a "rest" day). I am counting whatever a true "workout" means to you, whether you are more active ( < true workout) or not.

A day on the bike where my heart rate stays below 100 bpm and my power output below 100 watts counts as a rest day.

It isn't about whether I performed a specific task. I mean if you're a weight lifter and you drink a cup of coffee, those are little mini curls, and that's ok. It's about giving your body a break, time to recover.

Every time you exercise, you improve your fitness, and you also take on fatigue. Rest days are a tool for how you balance those two things.

That's all there is to it, no arbitrary rules.

rsclause

I rest when my body tells me to or when life gets in the way but I rarely plan one.

Djproulx

Interesting question. My answer is "it depends".

I work with a running/triathlon coach who doesn't schedule complete rest days for triathletes, except during off season breaks in the schedule. Instead, Mondays are typically "recovery days" and that means an easy paced bike trainer session designed to relieve fatigue in the legs brought on by long s/b/r workouts on Saturday and Sunday. If one of us needs a "no activity" day, we take it, but the default schedule is a just a HR Zone 1 effort on Mondays.

With that said, she also tracks our cumulative training load and provides step back weeks of reduced volume as we build for an event. Finally, if we're showing signs of fatigue, she will occasionally have us take a day off, since the most important goal is to avoid injuries as we build volume towards race day.

cwolfman13

Sunday is typically my rest day, but I'm still active...I often take my boys to the trampoline park on Sundays so that tends to be my exercise on Sunday and it's pretty light...sometimes we go to the rock climbing gym or just go to the park to throw the football around.

I also have easier and harder training days scheduled throughout the week.

Very occasionally I have a day where I just don't go do something...but it's usually because I need to get some chores done around the house or yard...I very rarely sit around and do nothing...pretty much only when I'm sick or something. I have a hard time sitting still for very long.

StarvingDiva

My workout schedule has 2 rest days, but I typically do yoga on those days, however I try to listen to my body, if I feel run down, I won't work out and I don't beat myself up about it, usually the next day I feel like myself again and workout.

pilarslayer

I have tended to work out 6 days and rest Sundays. I the entire day be a rest day. The only time I change it is if the week previous was a deload week then I will do some form of cardio on Sunday.

NorthCascades

Djproulx wrote: »

... she also tracks our cumulative training load and provides step back ...

This.

Ironandwine69

Rest day is a day that I don't lift or do any high intensity cardio( not that I do those, but just saying).

lorrpb

A calendar day gives you 2 nights of sleep. Sleep is vital to recovery. So in reality it's closer to 48 hours than 24. If you work out at about the same time every day, you normally have 24 hrs between.

rybo

I wouldn't consider your 36 hour schedule a rest day. You still worked out Saturday and Sunday. There was no rest or recovery day despite there being 36 hrs between workouts.

TimothyFish

For me, a rest day is just a day I do less than normal. Yesterday, I only rode my bicycle ten miles, so it was a rest day. Given that I had ridden 150 miles over the three days before, I kind of needed it.

TR0berts

NorthCascades wrote: »

_piaffe wrote: »

I know many of us have "active recovery" days (e.g. if cycling is your thing, one day might be a walk and that is a "rest" day). I am counting whatever a true "workout" means to you, whether you are more active ( < true workout) or not.

A day on the bike where my heart rate stays below 100 bpm and my power output below 100 watts counts as a rest day.

It isn't about whether I performed a specific task. I mean if you're a weight lifter and you drink a cup of coffee, those are little mini curls, and that's ok. It's about giving your body a break, time to recover.

Every time you exercise, you improve your fitness, and you also take on fatigue. Rest days are a tool for how you balance those two things.

That's all there is to it, no arbitrary rules.

Drop sets, even. 8 oz, 6 oz, 4 oz, 2 oz, done.

FatWithFatness

I workout Mon-Saturday, and Sunday is usually my day to get stuff done around the house, yardwork, etc.

need2belean

_piaffe wrote: »

If you want a recovery day, do you aim for a calendar day without exercise in a week - so, Sunday for example is a workout-free day - or do you regard any block of 24 consecutive hours without a "workout" as a rest day?

- no exercise Sunday: you work out 6 days in a calendar week

vs

- workout 9:30 a.m. Saturday and not again until 5 p.m. Sunday: you have worked out 7 of 7 days in a week, but have a 36 hour rest "day" / break, without exercise

I know many of us have "active recovery" days (e.g. if cycling is your thing, one day might be a walk and that is a "rest" day). I am counting whatever a true "workout" means to you, whether you are more active ( < true workout) or not.

I do a whole day. So, I lift 5 days a week and 2 days are rest days. Sometimes, I do an active rest day which involves light spinning for 30min or swimming for 30min but I will always take 1 whole rest day of no exercise.

_piaffe

Thanks for your perspectives, all.

I'm just curious about how different people approach "rest" and the "calendar day" as a unit of measure.

cwolfman13

I'm actually going to have to have to look at changing some things soon I think...at the urging of my 7 y.o. who does Jiu Jitsu, I signed up for a free class...hella fun and I'm pretty fit, but I'm not used to getting thrown around and rolling around on the ground and whatnot...I think I may need to take more rest than I'm typically accustomed to if I go ahead and sign up for this...I'm thinking the day after Jiu Jitsu will just have to be a recovery ride or something...I haven't been this sore in ages.

Sp1tfire

A full 24 hour calendar day without a workout. A walk is the most I'll do. I just take these as I need.

MsHarryWinston

For me it's a full calendar day.

Machka9

Last Sunday was a rest day for me.

We cycled a century (100 miles) on Saturday and wrapped it up about 6 pm or so.

From then until about 5 pm on Sunday afternoon, I did practically nothing. Then, late on Sunday afternoon, my husband and I went for a flat casual 2 km walk. My rest days usually include a short walk like this.

Monday, about noon, I was back into the usual brisk, hilly walk with backpack I do on a Monday afternoon ... and a little later on Monday afternoon, I did a spin class and then rowed.

I don't think I could have done Monday's spin class without the rest day on Sunday.

Gallowmere1984

A recovery day for me, simply implies no lifting or hard conditioning. I still hit the recumbent for an hour or so of LISS and some mobility work.

stanmann571

The most important thing, I think, is the idea that a rest or recovery day is bracketed by sleep cycles.

_piaffe

I've been doing a 30 days challenge where basically I do a spin class every day (and 2x week, weights). It just ended after I did a 1 hour intense spin class Sunday at 9:30 a.m.

From 10:30 a.m. Sunday to my next workout - a spin class at 6:30 p.m. Monday night - I did nothing. What I found was that I was totally recharged. Last night, after 35-36 hours "off", I hit all kinds of personal bests in class for resistance, speed etc. This prompted me to think about my recovery and how I approach "rest".

I felt FULLY recovered and rarin' to go. Yet, I had not taken an entire calendar day off. Even though I took a block of time off that technically exceeds 24 hour calendar day period.

I guess ultimately... listen to your body, like many of you say!