Days "Off"?

daniel7121

I'm a fitness newbie.. What do people do on their "days off"? I feel like if I stop, I might not start again! I did 30 minutes of cardio and around 30 minutes of moderate weight training yesterday, and I'm actually motivated to do it again today. I'm sore, but not that bad. I feel like I should at least go to the gym after work to do something, LOL! Any advice would be appreciated

MistressAella

Take an "active" rest day and do something fun . I work out 6 days a week right now as part of the program I'm on. It's not 6 days of fullbody exercises though, it's a split routine (ie. chest and triceps, back and biceps etc.). If you did a full body workout yesterday, definitely don't do weights again today. On my off days I take the kids out to the park, or go for a walk with my dog or try something new on Sports Active (PS3) -hey! it's winter still here and we have a LOT of snow. lol. If you don't have 3 kids like I do? man! the sky's the limit for what you can do! I still think it's awesome that you're this enthusiastic! Go, man, GO! LoL

jacksonpt

Stretching/mobility work, light exercise (walk my dogs, ride bikes with my kids, etc etc).

mdepko

I agree with the above, take a day and do something fun, different, whatever from you normal workout routine, but I wouldn't just not do something, especially right now, since you are just starting out! Keep moving, keep doing something. If you get overly sore, rest that part of your body, but stay active! Couches and "rest" got most of us to where we don't want to be!

JennChamb

The whole reason we have "rest" days is to give your muscles a break. They say for example to work different parts of the body each day and give a "break" between days on muscles. So Monday could be a leg/butt day, Tuesday an arm/ab day, Wednesday run, Thursday leg/butt, so on and so forth. The point is to not over work your body. But you can absolutely do SOMETHING everyday. Just give your focus areas a chance to rest up some so you don't get an injury.
That being said, I'm on W2D2 of the C25K and I wanted to run every day last week! I felt like I was wrong for giving an off day! lol

cidalia73

I take days off because because I have to. Busy mom, no gym membership, love to run but sometimes the weather sucks. But I don't quit altogether.

I think the key is to find something that makes you want to exercise. Find activities you enjoy and will enjoy doing over the long term. I enjoy walking, running, doing the stairs in my city that lead to our "mountain", hiking the trails up there and taking pictures, dancing. I'd probably enjoy video game exercises (like Wii fit or something like that). If you have to force yourself to do it every time, it will be hard to stick with, so find things you are passionate about.

DavPul

Stretching/mobility work, light exercise (walk my dogs, ride bikes with my kids, etc etc).

This.