Days of Rest ... for cardio too?

Quieau

I think I get that when building muscle and doing resistance and strength training, getting days of rest are beneficial to the process.

The question is: is this true of the role of cardio in weight loss as well? Is there benefit to a day a week (is that enough?) of resting ... ?

To be specific, I'm not talking about the psychological benefits of making it easier to be motivated, but specifically about the PHYSIOLOGICAL benefits (or lack thereof) to the process of burning fat/flushing water and avoiding adaptive thermogenesis? I'm running on the low end of 'healthy range' of calories at 1500 net a day (I eat back my exercise because I'm cutting it so close, I'm a very large framed woman with size 11 lean feet) ... I want to maintain a healthy, steady loss (a LOT to lose) but am curious if this day of rest has any validity in my situation? And would a gentle walk, of say 15-30 minutes still be within the 'resting' parameters? My walks have become very important to my feelings of fluidity, grace, balance, flexibility, etc. and help with lymphatic cleansing. I don't want to give them up entirely for even a day if I can avoid it.

Thanks for your thoughtful replies ... !

gracielynn1011

I think I get that when building muscle and doing resistance and strength training, getting days of rest are beneficial to the process.

The question is: is this true of the role of cardio in weight loss as well? Is there benefit to a day a week (is that enough?) of resting ... ?

To be specific, I'm not talking about the psychological benefits of making it easier to be motivated, but specifically about the PHYSIOLOGICAL benefits (or lack thereof) to the process of burning fat/flushing water and avoiding adaptive thermogenesis? I'm running on the low end of 'healthy range' of calories at 1500 net a day (I eat back my exercise because I'm cutting it so close, I'm a very large framed woman with size 11 lean feet) ... I want to maintain a healthy, steady loss (a LOT to lose) but am curious if this day of rest has any validity in my situation? And would a gentle walk, of say 15-30 minutes still be within the 'resting' parameters? My walks have become very important to my feelings of fluidity, grace, balance, flexibility, etc. and help with lymphatic cleansing. I don't want to give them up entirely for even a day if I can avoid it.

Thanks for your thoughtful replies ... !

My lifting program has me scheduled for 3 days lifting (M, W, & F) and two days cardio (Th & Sa). I am scheduled for rest days on Sun and Tues. I usually always have an actual rest day on Sunday, if you can call it rest when I am cleaning and doing laundry and playing ball with the kids between church times. Sometimes on Tuesday, I add extra cardio, sometimes not. It really just depends how I feel that day.

KateK8LoseW8

Cardio can still be hard on your muscles, joints, and bones, and overuse injuries do happen, particularly to runners. So yes, rest days are always important. However, I'm a big believer in active rest. I always at least go for a walk, maybe do very light cycling, play games on the Kinect, do yoga, generally don't let myself be a couch potato the entire day. As long as you aren't doing anything strenuous, you'll be fine.

ndj1979

you should have at least one, one hundred percent rest day a week to let your body recover and just take a break from working out so you do not burn yourself out...

My program is lifting weights on Mon/Tus & Thur/Fri (upper/lower split) wens I do HIIT and Abs work ...saturday is usually 100% rest day and then sunday I usually do a light jog to my gym and do some circuits then jog back to my place..sometimes I take both saturday and sunday off.....