Rest days?

greeneyes82

Does anyone else have a problem with taking rest days? I usually work out 6 days out of the week & rest on Sunday. I know we need to take rest days, but how many do we actually have to take? Also, on the day or 2 I might not work out, I can't stay within my 1200 calorie goal. I never use all my extra calories from working out, but I don't know how much I should really have on rest days. Do I stick to the 1200? How often should I rest? I work out each day usually 1 1/2 hours which is intense cardio & some weight lifting. Am I doing too much?

samseed101

How long you rest depends on exactly what you're doing for exercises. If you are doing a lot of lifting and, as a result, breaking down muscle fibers through microtrauma, then you should rest 48 hours before working the same muscle group again. If you're simply doing cardio every day, then extended periods of rest may not be necessary. In fact, I often do light cardio on my rest days and save the heavy cardio for my lifting days.

You should always try to hit (or at least come close to hitting) your calorie and macronutrient goal for the day. If you are having trouble hitting the goals (either too high or too low) then take a look at what it is you are eating and make adjustments. If you go over your goal every day, then obviously you risk gaining weight or staying the same. If you go too low on a regular basis, you risk slowing your metabolism as your body strives to balance itself out. Then it only becomes harder to lose weight and easier to put on weight. On top of that, you can become catabolic and you will end up burning off muscle mass while holding onto fat. Sure, you will lose weight that way, but do you REALLY want to burn muscle and save fat simply to make the scale display a lower number?

kksam

I usually don't go to the wellness center to work out on Sat. or Sun. I try to get my hubby to go on those mornings but it hasn't happened yet. So I try to get him moving somehow and do get some of my 10,000 steps in. Not real good at that one of the two days, I watch that I stay in my total allowed and meet that pretty well. They say if you do 3 good days a week that's enough, so my five days must be ok too. Good luck and stay on track.:drinker:

Azdak

I am going to echo samseed. You really have to evaluate what you are doing and how you are progressing. You can build 'recovery' into your routine without actually taking rest days. Sometimes that's enough. Sometimes, if you are working really hard, you reach a point where the body needs a complete break for a day or too. It's not an exact science.

I have gone through periods where I worked out 40+ days in a row, sometimes twice a day and felt fine and progressed steadily. But ultimately I reached a point where I started going backwards or struggled to keep up. At that point I took 2 full days off, did a couple of easy days, maybe even another day off, and then I was able to go back and resume my usual load and went another 20-30 days.

I not only vary what I do every day, but I also go through different cycles of varied intensity. I have been doing that since August and I continue to make steady progress. Sometimes it's tough to back down after you hit a new high, but I have confidence enough now to know that, in 3 weeks or so the new peak will be even higher.

So, listen to your body and chart your workouts. And don't be afraid to take rest days.

Also, make sure you are varying your workouts and building in "easy" days and even "easy" weeks.