Benefits of rest?

I normally only take one day off per week from exercising, but this previous weekend I basically took both days off.

I went in today and bumped my heavier bench press sets up by two full reps apiece. I may experiment more with taking two days off instead of one after that.

More rest is definitely important. What's the good of trying to build your body up so much if you never give it time to do that? It's like trying to glue something together. You can use as much glue as you want, but if you don't give it time to dry, it won't stick!

More rest is definitely important. What's the good of trying to build your body up so much if you never give it time to do that? It's like trying to glue something together. You can use as much glue as you want, but if you don't give it time to dry, it won't stick!

Very well put! I may use this in the future!

I exercise 5-7 days a week. I've been exercising an hour 5 days a week and 2-3 hours on the weekend. On the weekend if I'm not working I go twice a day. I recently had a fall and had to take two days off. I went to the gym for the first time yesterday.. I have to take it light. I will just do treadmill for 3 miles/ or bike for 30. I probably won't go tonight because I haven't eaten my calories. I'm going to have to play around with that. I normally eat close to my calories without going over. I never eat back my calories but haven't lose a pound in the last two weeks. I like to exercise because of the energy I have, the way my clothes are fiting and I can see a difference in my appearance though I'm only down 12 pounds.

It depends on what you're doing. You can easily do low impact exercise - e.g. walking - every day. Higher impact exercise - long distance running, sprints/HIIT intervals, or weight lifting, you need to give your body time to rebuild... Your muscles can only repair so fast. If you work out and push the same muscle group before it's repaired, it actually undoes any potential gains from your previous session - your muscle has to begin the repair process again.

If you've been training hard and pushing yourself for many weeks, you can overload your CNS (central nervous system) by stressing it too hard. Remember that part of training is your brain learning/growing it's ability to activate your muscles as well... A "deload" week where you exercise less, lift less weight than normal, etc. can be very beneficial to letting your brain recuperate.

The gym is where we break ourselves down. Resting is where we build ourselves back up.

It really depends on what kind and how much you are doing. Over stressing your body can be bad for you. Not only for injuries but for hormones, sleep and brain function. Personally I dont see any reason to exercise more than 4-5 days a week.

I usually average one day of rest from working out a week, sometimes slightly less depending on how I feel. A week off? Rarely, but I find it doesn't hurt when I'm forced to do it. I base it on how I feel. If I'm in a heavy lifting phase for a few weeks like Fibonacci or Progressive Pyramids I might go 3 days on, one day off because I'm fatigued by the 3rd day. Other weeks are circuits or intermittent super sets so I can go 6 days before I need rest. And usually I lift and do cardio the same day, but some days I might just lift and other days I might just do cardio. And sometimes if I haven't done as much cardio for the weekI might just go for a light run or bike ride outside on the day off from lifting, depending on how I feel. Everything I do is based on listening to my body, whether I lift heavy, when I need to eat, when I take the day off for rest. There is no real set routine, just every day is an opportunity to workout and what does the body need.

I've found three things extremely important for continual weight loss:
1) proper intake of calories....ie don't starve yourself
2)variation in your workout routine
3)Decompression of 1 or 2 days off per week.....your body will tell you what you need to do. I normally hit gym for 2 hours each day(except Sunday) and find I occasionally need more rest. For example, took 4 days off over Labor day and actually came back almost 2 pounds lighter

a rest day is very important because your muscles will strengthen and become stronger as a result of taking that day off.

I gotta be honest. I find it totally hard to take rest days from exercise even though I know they are important to have. I dunno. Exercise makes me feel fantastic and I get itchy and bored sitting around on a rest day. It drives me nuts! So I have to force myself to do it and usually, I am a little miserable on rest days because I'd rather not have to take them.

I work out 6 days per week for about an hour each time. I alternate biking days with running days. My lower back starts to ache if I don't take that time off--and the crazy part is, after I've had a "rest" day...omg...I have SO much energy in the next workout I do. Today was my first day back on in the cycle after a rest and my goodness. I could've run forever and ever! (just call me Forrest!! haha)