How many resting days per week?

AnnPT77

This is a total generality, but when speaking about regular, routine activity, I think it's not a great idea to do similar very high-intensity cardio for day after day, or to do relatively intense strength training of the same muscle groups day after day. Those things, IMO, are better on an every other day basis, or less. Beyond that, I think a lot of this question is subjective, and the specifics change as you get fitter.

Again an extreme generality, but if one's goal is general fitness and health (including weight loss), I think our workouts should be challenging in varied ways, but our overall workout schedule should leave us feeling energized for the rest of our daily life (after maybe a brief post-exercise period of feeling the workout's impact). If the overall schedule leaves us feeling drained, fatigued, and exhausted in general, that's a sign of overdoing. (If the major goal is weight loss, it can even be counterproductive, by leading us to subconsciously reduce daily activity because of the fatigue, reducing NEAT calorie burn).

I've been pretty active for around 15 years (even while obese), and am kinda old (62). I'm not as active as I was in my 50s when I was actually training and competing. I slack off a bit in the Winter (I'm a rower), but my routine is try to do some aerobic activity at sustainable but challenging intensity 6 days a week most week, and lift 2-3 times a week. In summer, I usually row 4 days (M-W-Fr-Sa) and go to a spin class 2 (Tu-Th). Occasionally, especially if I miss a row for weather or other reasons, I'll ride my bike for an hour or so, or walk 4-6 miles at a challenging pace I can sustain for the whole walk. Late in the rowing season, I usually include more intensity on more rowing days (intervals, usually), but still intersperse a good bit of steady state work. Sundays are my standard rest day, which means normal active stuff - maybe casual walk, yoga, yard work, easy bike ride, but nothing intense. If I've had a hard workout week, I may just spend the day on sedentary hobbies.

When I started working out regularly, in my mid-40s, there was more of a ramp-up process, with lots of steady state (lower intensity) cardio of shorter duration, and more rest days. Gradually, the length, frequency and intensity of workouts increased.

During periods when I was really trainng, I followed a formal, professionally-developed structured periodized training plan, which laid out workouts in terms of their duration and intensity, which varied day by day & week by week. Even that included one rest day per week, and some periodic lighter weeks. Nowadays, I'm just active for fund and general fitness, so I'm not as formally structured, but I still think about varying workout details for a good balance.

Jadub729

I dont usually do any purposeful exercise on the weekends, I still make sure I get my 10k steps though.

Fitnessmom82

leda1515 wrote: »

How many resting days a week should I take? Is one enough or should it be more?

My workouts are probably considered moderalty intense 6 days per week. I try to take the 7th day off. Sometimes I still go to the gym but I'll just do some light cardio or a yoga class. At this point I really just listen to my body. Some weeks I feel like I need two rest days. Do whatever works for you!

Lillymoo01

Francl27 wrote: »

I don't do rest days. I aim for 10k steps every day, or I can only eat 1400 calories, and that's not happening.

I feel your pain with that one. The joys of being vertically challenged.

LivingtheLeanDream

The answer will vary from person to person, personally I take rest days on the weekends but they are fairly active rest days..or if I feel like chilling instead I will

kshama2001

Normally I workout twice a week and do some sort of other activity the other five days, but I did close to 5 hours of gardening yesterday and my hamstrings aren't up for anything more than foam rolling and light stretching.