Hi everyone, I have a question: which is best-exercising every day or having a rest day in between? I am confused by the conflicting information/advice I am reading lately. I currently do home exercise (low impact aerobics, yoga style etc) daily up to a max of 50 mins. However, I am reading that muscles need to rest and repair? Your thoughts/advice/comments will be well appreciated. Thanks in anticipation. x
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I typically don't workout on the weekends. saturdays are usually busy and on Sundays the gym doesn't open till mid afternoon and I think its stupid.
Not exactly the kind of workouts that are stressing the muscles so much they need repair once you get over the initial starting of the workout - that may require some extra time.
Once past initial startup - could probably do that daily, sort of like walking, not doing a lot of damage that needs repair that causes improvement - it's just movement that burns some calories, good for heart health up to a certain point.
Context matters.
This is something that really depends on context. Generally, you need more rest and recovery when performing more strenuous exercise that stresses the body and tears it down...you need the recovery to build it back up. This is why people who lift weight will typically do a full body program 3x per week with time in between workouts or they do a split to where they can work on consecutive days, but they will work different muscle groups. Same for more strenuous cardio bouts...either in regards to distance and duration and intensity of the work.
What you describe I would generally say any full stop rest day is likely not necessary, with the caveat being your current fitness level. If you are coming from a more or less sedentary lifestyle and not particularly physically fit, you may require more rest and recovery...this doesn't necessarily have to be an every other day kind of thing.
I'm active most every day of the week, but my work is also variable in intensity and duration...I have some very hard days and other days are easier to very lite work. A rest/recovery day for me would generally include a 2.5-3 mile walk at some point and either an easy cruise on my road bike or trail bike or some yoga...maybe both.
"Best" is individual depending on your capabilities and your overall training load.
If you are conditioned to your routine I doubt you are doing any damage that needs repair.
If you are feeling any soreness or fatigue that might indicate you are pushing your current limits and then taking steps to remedy or manage that would be sensible.
Not seeing any need for you to rest either with a short duration and low intensity exercise.
Isn't there significant rest periods in your normal days anyway (sleep for example!).
If whatever you have been reading doesn't give context around rest/recovery/repair I would hazard a guess it's not a great resource.
For me, I generally do an active recovery day of Pilates or yoga or light cardio and I often take a full rest day. I find as I get older I need the full rest day more than I used to.