Rest days

lisajames925

How many rest days should I have a week ? I think I ve worn myself out I ache everywhere today . Have done 4k run sat and sun , combat mon Tuesday and insanity last night. Walked around 4 k a day to pushing two children about 4 stone between them in a buggy on school runs.

jjpptt2

Take rest days when you need them - there is no right/set number.

lisajames925

Ok thank you. I think today is a needed one. Can barely walk up the stairs

Mandylou19912014

I usually train 4 days a week and the others are rest days. Rest days are just as important as training days as they allow for your muscles to build .. I would suggest having around 3 rest days a week

jjpptt2

Just as an FYI - rest days don't have to be sit-on-the-couch days. You can treat them as recovery days and keep moving, but at a much lower intensity. I often times will hike with my dogs or ride bikes with my son or something along those lines. Not what I would consider exercise, but it keeps me moving, helps keep my muscles loose, etc.

Both rest days and recovery days have their place - I'm not trying to steer you in any direction.

rsclause

When my body starts talking to me I have learned to listen. There is a difference between being a little sore and feeling completely exhausted.

BrianSharpe

The need for rest days varies from person to person and with how long they've been active for and whether or not you're getting enough sleep.

I typically do something pretty much every day alternating between running/swimming/biking/rowing but I've also been exercising pretty consistently for the past 10 years or so and have found a pretty good balance. Every now and then if I'm feeling unduly fatigued I'll listen to my body and take a day or two off.

TavistockToad

lisajames925 wrote: »

Ok thank you. I think today is a needed one. Can barely walk up the stairs

Sounds like you're a day too late then!

Chieflrg

lisajames925 wrote: »

How many rest days should I have a week ? I think I ve worn myself out I ache everywhere today . Have done 4k run sat and sun , combat mon Tuesday and insanity last night. Walked around 4 k a day to pushing two children about 4 stone between them in a buggy on school runs.

That depends on how well you recover which depends on how high is your fitness.

Nobody can answer that without knowing either along with your goal.

0ysterboy

I agree, your body tells you when to rest, listen to it. For me, it seems like family obligations establish days that I cannot exercise and thus must "rest". Also, if I get sick (like a cold), working out is the last thing on my mind.

gearhead426hemi

Just listen to your body. A rest day should still include walking or stretching. Sitting on the couch is the worst thing you can do on a rest day. I find that on the days I am really sore doing some stretching or just holding light tension on the muscles that are sore really seems to help.

mabearof6

I rest as needed.....Some weeks I will run everyday, and other weeks my body will tell me to take a rest day. I had to learn how to key on what my body needed. It was hard at first because it was easy to the use the need to rest as an excuse to not exercise, instead of truly needing to give my body the break it needed.

MostlyWater

Yes. Listen to your body. Everyone is different; we're all different ages and we all have different capabilities. And you don't need to kill yourself to consider it a good workout.

cwolfman13

There's not really an answer because there are so many variables. Being so sore that you can't walk is probably an indication that you're doing too much too soon.

When I first started back to fitness I exercised every other day and took the days in between to rest, namely because I was very out of shape.

Now it just depends on what I'm doing. I do something most days, but that something might just be a walk or yoga. My exercise isn't particularly rigorous at the moment so I don't really need a rest day per sei, but I usually take a day or two to just do something relaxing like going for a walk or maybe hitting the climbing gym or going for a hike in the mountains...or sometimes I do nothing except play Xbox with my kids.

lisajames925

I walk 4 k a day with school run so maybe I ll just do that and nothing else few days a week.

MikePfirrman

I've gone from a couch potato to someone (over around 10 years) that exercises 6 days a week and feels guilty if I don't. I've look forward to my workouts now. When I started, not so much! I've heard people say work through DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). I'm not a big believer in that. Yeah, perhaps moving a bit to loosen up, but if you're new to working out, don't go hard if you're extremely, extremely sore and in massive pain. DOMS becomes less of a problem the more accustomed you get to working out.

I'm a huge believer in one day a week "rest". Rest for me means walking all my dogs around a couple of miles and maybe being on my feet all day after. Active rest but not pushing it. I've also learned (I think) that deloading at least once a year is good (like a week off) and another couple days of rest here and there -- I mostly take these if I have a tweak or something or feel like I'm dreading working out (my body's way of saying I'm pushing too hard). I find, in general, these naturally occur - sick for a day or sore back, etc.


Another trick is knowing your resting heart rate. You take it when you first wake up (before you move around in bed even). If you know what your RHR is, it's a useful tool. If you've been feeling sluggish, take your RHR. If it's elevated, it's a sign that you're overtraining and probably need to at least go light for a few days.

lisajames925

Thank you that’s helpful. Just walked yesterday but did a run today as feeling looser. I think it was the insanity that did as was first time I tried it and was a very intense 45 minutes