Is Recovery neccesary?

sarahlong09

I have been walking at about 3-4 miles a day or swimming for 7 days straight. My body is sore and I am pretty exhausted! I dont want to stop for a day because I feel as if I may have trouble starting again until I make it a habit.

I have heard that some people work out everyday and its fine, and i have heard that you have to rest a day or so every once in a while. I am wondering what the benefits of a recovery day are and if they out weigh the calories burned exercising everyday.

please help if you know!

AlsDonkBoxSquat

I was always taught that you can workout every day if you mix up your workouts: M, W, F focusing on strength; T, Th, Sat focus on cardio. Or just mix up what you're doing in general. This gives your body some rest and keeps your mind involved (I get bored easily). Not everyone is big on having a rest day, I think having one full day of rest from organized exercise (notice not inactive) really kept me on track.

ArroganceInStep

A lot of it depends on the intensity. I think light to moderate cardio without rest daily is fine. When you start getting into strength training you mostly just need to make sure you don't work the same muscles back to back.

Being sore and tired is ok, but if you're borderline injury or burnout definitely that's dangerous. I think the recovery days have more to do with that injury/mental component than anything else.

I understand the fear of falling off though, so you might want to consider a light day rather than a full recovery day. Have one or two days a week where you have a shorter workout session or cut down on the intensity. That should help a bit with the soreness and tiredness.

Good Luck!