Are rest days necessary

mjrogue77

Hello

I sit at my computer all day and figure working out for 1 - 1.5 hrs a days 7 days a week wont hurt since my overall day is very sedentary. Do I really need a rest day?

Schedule:
Mon: Shoulders, + 30min cardio
Tue: Chest and Triceps, +30min cardio
Wed: Legs
Thurs: back and biceps, + 30min cardio
Friday: 60 mins Orange theory workout
Sat: 50 min Pure Barre empower workout
Sun: 60 min Orange Theory workout

Any suggestions?

Thanks
MJRogue

cmriverside

No you don't need a rest day.

Retroguy2000

It depends.

I'd lean towards no you don't need a break, but you probably will if you're new to this routine. Once you're used to it, it's probably sustainable.

You'll know when you need rest. You won't be mentally ready to keep going, you'll struggle to improve reps or weight in the strength workouts, you'll feel general soreness and fatigue, maybe the start of tendonitis related issues, etc.

Some of this may also depend how much of a calorie deficit you're doing. Time your inputs to within a few hours pre-workout to make sure you're fueled.

Leo_King84

You don't need rest days but you do need to listen to your body. If you're eating enough and sleeping enough you should be good but I'd you start feeling overly tired or getting cold like symptons you should slow down a bit.

tomcustombuilder

It depends on the intensity of your workouts and your calorie amounts.

High intensity and a calorie deficit and you may need a rest day. If you aren’t losing energy through the week during workouts then you’re probably ok.

AnnPT77

I kind of agree with some of the people upthread about some things.

It matters what the workouts are, including details you didn't give us about intensity and the type of cardio. It matters how trained/conditioned you are. It may even matter how old you are, what your general health status is, and more . . . definitely including nutrition, sleep, calorie level, and even hydration.

If a beginner to exercise did the schedule you list (at any intensity), it wouldn't be ideal. Recovery is where the magic - muscle repair - happens. How much and what type of recovery you need varies based on factors I just mentioned, and probably others.

I'm an long-term experienced exerciser, eating maintenance calories, getting good nutrition, but I'm aging. From experience, I've learned that I do best - in energy level and fitness progress - if I vary exercise types and intensities in certain patterns. Even then, I do best if I have one real rest day per week. I might do some stretching, or a casual walk or bike ride, but nothing lengthy or intense.

If you pay attention, you can figure out what your body needs. Pay attention to energy level. Pay attention to fitness progress. If those don't seem good, then try adjusting your plan to make improvements. Consider things like nutrition and sleep in there, too. So much of this is individual.

Some of the fitness trackers and fitness apps these days include functions that estimate training readiness (i.e., are you recovered enough). I don't go that far, but it's an option if you need help.

If you're a beginner, though: Cut that back. Increase gradually. That's likely to maximize total calorie burn (in the sense that over-exercise causes fatigue that bleeds activity and calorie burn out of other parts of life). Proper exercise dosing will also give you the best fitness progress. Continually ripping apart muscles (including heart muscle) without giving them enough time to repair doesn't produce maximum fitness progress, either.

Train smart. There's no generic answer to your question, IMO.

Best wishes!

ninerbuff

Not really, but it will depend on the intensity of your workouts. If you're going hard 7 days a week, then yes. Personally, I'd only do Orange Theory once a week and the other day just some moderate cardio.

I train everyday, but only one bodypart per day. I won't train it again till next week. Cardio I do everyday, but the intensity of each day is different.


A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

mjrogue77

Thanks all for your replies! I've been training for 1.5yrs consistently... Strength trained thru out my life. I am currently 46, 5'3" and 144lbs, on a calorie deficit. I am consuming about 1400 cal per day as I'm trying to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight of 130lbs. I worked my way up to 0 rest days. My cardio is not too intense(arc trainer) since Orange theory is pretty intense for me. So far been on no rest days since February and there are weeks that i feel like a need a day off and i take it.

ddsb1111

Congrats on the baby and your commitment, it’s really impressive.

I have a question about your workout schedule. Is there a reason you’re only working out 1 or 2 body parts a day for about 30 min? Or do the Orange Theory workouts count as another training day for those areas?

I’ve been trying to read up on workout routines and I’m seeing conflicting opinions on splits. What’s your opinion and results so far?

mjrogue77

@ddsb1111 Thanks! I don't count Orange theory as a strength day for any particular body part since in my opinion the strength workouts are minimal and spread across many body parts. My splits are based on many years of working out with personal trainers and what has worked for my schedule. I am seeing results but boy is it slow lol. Good luck with your fitness journey

Retroguy2000

mjrogue77 wrote: »

My splits are based on many years of working out with personal trainers and what has worked for my schedule. I am seeing results but boy is it slow lol. Good luck with your fitness journey

Current research suggests higher frequency is better than doing each part once weekly. If you can't hit chest, back, etc. more than once because of whatever reason, that's fine, so then I'd ask if you're consistently progressing in weight and reps? I'm not saying this is you, but studies show that a lot of people aren't training anywhere close to the failure they think they are. Also, how many working sets (i.e. not incl warmups) are you doing per part? 10-15 sets weekly is a good target for building. And I assume you're getting sufficient protein, at least 0.7g/lb.

mjrogue77

@Retroguy2000 how does higher frequency work? Im guilty of not getting to .7g/lb of protein

Retroguy2000

mjrogue77 wrote: »

how does higher frequency work? Im guilty of not getting to .7g/lb of protein

Get your protein in! You're doing so much hard work with the training and probably diet too. The easy part is taking one minute to mix some protein powder and drink it.

On frequency, let's start with the assumption that 10-15 working sets weekly is the goal. You can do more, and get slightly more gains, but with rapidly diminishing returns as well as introducing a lot more fatigue. So call it 10-15. And let's talk about glutes, assuming you're female you might want to prioritize that. You can do 12 sets in one workout sure, but there are diminishing returns after a while, and you shouldn't be able to get the same quality reps by the end of the workout as you did at the start. Then two days later your glutes are recovered, ready to receive more signals to grow, but then you don't train them again until five days after that. That doesn't make much sense, right?

So instead do 5 working sets, 3 times per week. Those are all good quality sets, and you probably get more total reps than doing them in one workout, which is more volume therefore more growth.

You don't have to do this with every body part. I mean ideally you would, but you have a busy schedule, you have other fitness priorities, and that's fine. Say you wanted to prioritize one part over the others, your glutes, do them 2-4 times a week (while meeting similar weekly volume goals) and do chest, back etc. once as you do now.

AnnPT77

In again just to say this:

Yes.

Get.

The.

Protein!

Very important, very easy. No reason not to do it, as long as no pre-existing kidney disease or Alpha-Gal Syndrome (you'd know). Even with AGS, it should be possible, just a little harder. I can get that level of protein as a vegetarian, and without using protein powder/bars/fake meats. (Nothing wrong with protein powder. I just find food tastier and more satisfying, so I figured it out.)

DarrellGoodliffe2024

This is my first year of taking fitness, working out, gym etc seriously as something I do and part of the reason is I moved from a very physically demanding job in Hospitality to an office job.

I think if the last 4 months have taught me anything it is the wisdom of listening to your body and letting it tell you what it needs. So ye I don’t think there is a hard and fast set in strone right or wrong answer to this