rest days

schnarfo
schnarfo Posts: 764 Member
edited September 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
How important are rest days when it comes to working out? Whats your ratio of working out to rest days?

Replies

  • tinasullens
    tinasullens Posts: 203 Member
    You should have at least 1 - 2 rest days per week. I usually only take 1 rest day. Your body needs time to recover. It helps your muscles to repair/build plus if you overtrain, you'll be defeating your purpose of trying to lose weight (if that is your goal). A rest day can be doing absolutely no exercise, or just doing some stretching or a leisurely walk or light yoga.
  • Panda86
    Panda86 Posts: 873
    I hear they are really important, for the reasons stated above............ I don't do a rest day, and I haven't been losing weight... I wonder if a rest day would help.... its worth a try.
  • schnarfo
    schnarfo Posts: 764 Member
    You should have at least 1 - 2 rest days per week. I usually only take 1 rest day. Your body needs time to recover. It helps your muscles to repair/build plus if you overtrain, you'll be defeating your purpose of trying to lose weight (if that is your goal). A rest day can be doing absolutely no exercise, or just doing some stretching or a leisurely walk or light yoga.

    I am currently at my goal weight but eating all the calories mfp says to maintain means that I constantly feel full and therefore want to hit the gym again the next day! Im gonna take tomorrow off as I know I should but its so tempting lol. Ideally I want to gain strength so I am doing a mixture of cardio and light weights in the gym and swimming in the pool doing laps usually about 50 - 60 lengths.
  • crasula
    crasula Posts: 53 Member
    Most of the most work-out schedules i've seen seem to have at least 1 rest days per week but unless you're setting some serious challenges for yourself or you're some kind of top athlete 2 rest days is pretty reasonable.

    I run 30 miles per week with a rest day on Sunday and Thursday and i still consistently lose weight and i'm able to improve my running standards.

    If you push it too hard you just end up resenting it which will completely ruin it. Also don't forget to take multi-vitamins every day if you're limiting your calorie intake while working out hard as it really makes a huge difference to your physical state after any prolonged period of frequent exercise.

    Good luck!
This discussion has been closed.

Categories