Do I need a "rest"?

lauragreenbaum

I do Pilates every day, and a friend told me I need a "rest" day in between, so should only be doing every other day. Pilates works the entire body and I always feel great afterward and not fatigued. There are some days I push myself a lot harder and will be sore the next day but I still do it daily.

Should I listen to my friend or just keep doing what I'm doing?

cwolfman13

lauragreenbaum wrote: »

I do Pilates every day, and a friend told me I need a "rest" day in between, so should only be doing every other day. Pilates works the entire body and I always feel great afterward and not fatigued. There are some days I push myself a lot harder and will be sore the next day but I still do it daily.

Should I listen to my friend or just keep doing what I'm doing?

I've never done pilates, so I can't speak specifically to that...but generally speaking recovery is where fitness gains are made. A lack of recovery can ultimately interfere with fitness improvements as well as lead to an increased risk of injury.

Not that "rest/recover" means just sitting on the couch. My recovery days are still active, but rest from more strenuous work. I would still go for walks...do yoga, etc. on recovery days. I'm pretty well active 7 days per week, but not everything is a "workout".

Also, recovery issues tend to be things that creep up over time...they aren't typically an immediate thing. It is pretty common for people who are new to fitness to think they feel fine...until they don't. I also don't think it's necessarily a matter of doing what you're doing every other day, but working in one or two recovery days into your fitness regimen. Recovery is as important to fitness as the actual work.

nossmf

I lift Monday-Wednesday-Friday, and do cardio Tuesday-Thursday. Effectively this means my lifting "recovery" day is a cardio day, and my cardio "recovery" day is lifting. When I used to lift every single day, I would break it up by body parts...chest one day, back another, legs a third, etc, so even though I was lifting it wasn't the exact same body part doing the exact same thing.

So rest days are probably important, especially if your body starts to tell you it's tired and sore and your ability to do your next pilates day suffers. But you are ultimately your own judge...I could do more on consecutive days in my 20's than I can do today.

Probably a good idea to take at least one day completely off per week. Doesn't have to be Sunday, if some other day works for you.

AnnPT77

IME, Pilates can vary a lot in intensity, and in the specific exercises being done.

How long have you had the "Pilates every day" routine? Do you do the exact same exercises every day, or do they vary?

If you've been doing it for quite a while, and have felt good throughout, you're probably fine. If you've been doing other forms of moderately challenging exercise very regularly before the Pilates for quite some time, and felt good then and now, you're probably fine. Besides the conditioning - which is what I'm implying in the beginning of this paragraph - if you've been regularly active for a long time (many months to years), it's more likely that you can trust your own intuition about when you're overdoing.

If you're in the brand new honeymoon phase of working out (first few weeks), I'd say you're in "hmmm" territory. If the exercises are quite varied from one day to the next (in body parts hit, or intensity), still could be OK. If the same stuff every day, maybe more iffy. If limited history of exercise activity, then intuition may be limited, when it comes to recognizing the early signs of overdoing.

So, hard to answer, but that's some stuff to maybe think about.

lauragreenbaum

AnnPT77 wrote: »

IME, Pilates can vary a lot in intensity, and in the specific exercises being done.

How long have you had the "Pilates every day" routine? Do you do the exact same exercises every day, or do they vary?

If you've been doing it for quite a while, and have felt good throughout, you're probably fine. If you've been doing other forms of moderately challenging exercise very regularly before the Pilates for quite some time, and felt good then and now, you're probably fine. Besides the conditioning - which is what I'm implying in the beginning of this paragraph - if you've been regularly active for a long time (many months to years), it's more likely that you can trust your own intuition about when you're overdoing.

If you're in the brand new honeymoon phase of working out (first few weeks), I'd say you're in "hmmm" territory. If the exercises are quite varied from one day to the next (in body parts hit, or intensity), still could be OK. If the same stuff every day, maybe more iffy. If limited history of exercise activity, then intuition may be limited, when it comes to recognizing the early signs of overdoing.

So, hard to answer, but that's some stuff to maybe think about.

Thanks, such a great response. I've been doing Pilates for 1 1/2 years. Got slowed down a bit during Covid, but bought a reformer and kept working out. I think I like it too much to take a break, and yes, I can trust when I'm overdoing it.

AnnPT77

lauragreenbaum wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

IME, Pilates can vary a lot in intensity, and in the specific exercises being done.

How long have you had the "Pilates every day" routine? Do you do the exact same exercises every day, or do they vary?

If you've been doing it for quite a while, and have felt good throughout, you're probably fine. If you've been doing other forms of moderately challenging exercise very regularly before the Pilates for quite some time, and felt good then and now, you're probably fine. Besides the conditioning - which is what I'm implying in the beginning of this paragraph - if you've been regularly active for a long time (many months to years), it's more likely that you can trust your own intuition about when you're overdoing.

If you're in the brand new honeymoon phase of working out (first few weeks), I'd say you're in "hmmm" territory. If the exercises are quite varied from one day to the next (in body parts hit, or intensity), still could be OK. If the same stuff every day, maybe more iffy. If limited history of exercise activity, then intuition may be limited, when it comes to recognizing the early signs of overdoing.

So, hard to answer, but that's some stuff to maybe think about.

Thanks, such a great response. I've been doing Pilates for 1 1/2 years. Got slowed down a bit during Covid, but bought a reformer and kept working out. I think I like it too much to take a break, and yes, I can trust when I'm overdoing it.

In that case, don't let some random friend rattle your confidence (unless they have some super-good, super-relevant professional expertise). People have opinions. They're not always good ones. 😉

natasor1

Actualy, history of the Pilates goes far in to begining of the 20th century. It was created by the hendicapped Pilates for the handicapped or injured individuals to recover or get started moving and service themself in the daily activities. I don't see how in the world, the handicapped motions can create big tension in the healthy individuals. Pilates normally are very slow motion movements with just couple reps, with high concentration on the particular part of the body, breathing and coordinating simmetry and alignment. I would not worry about "recovery" from recovery exercises. I would start adding some strength and HIIT exercises, bc you are allready on the level what handicapped people only dream about. They only try to reach your level, but you already there.