What is a rest day to you?

annebaum41912
annebaum41912 Posts: 87 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I admit, I am not so good with these. I tend to go and go and go because I'm afraid if I stop I will not start again. This is not to say that I think I am overdoing things. Usually my exercises are pretty low impact like walking A LOT or doing some WATP videos. I zumba 2 days a week as well. But I do something every day. I'm starting to think maybe I could take a day "off" without losing my motivation.
But my question is, what makes a rest day? What can you still do and call it one? And how do you get your minimum steps in if you are "resting" all day? Or do you just not worry about that on a rest day.

Replies

  • beatgirl98
    beatgirl98 Posts: 17
    What about pilates or yoga or a low impact swim on your rest days? Then you're varying it up, but none of those exercises are high impact.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    No high intensity, vigorous exercise...letting the body rest. I'm still active...go for walks, ride my bike, do yoga, etc. Pretty much everyone who performs vigorous exercise should have 1-2 days per week of rest and/or lower intensity exercise dispersed throughout a given week.

    If all you're doing is walking and what not, that's great and walking is great for the heart and a great way to be moving...but you don't really need a rest day. Rest days are to avoid beating the ****e out of your body 7 days per week with vigorous exercise.
  • dbg1
    dbg1 Posts: 208
    Agreed. I walk on my day of rest. No intense exercise. The body needs to recover. Muscles need to recover from the tear down that occurs and build back up again.
  • Hexahedra
    Hexahedra Posts: 894 Member
    Rest days are days where I don't lift or run. At most I will do one set of push ups and one of chin ups, both until failure.
  • RunHardBeStrong
    RunHardBeStrong Posts: 33,069 Member
    No high intensity, vigorous exercise...letting the body rest. I'm still active...go for walks, ride my bike, do yoga, etc. Pretty much everyone who performs vigorous exercise should have 1-2 days per week of rest and/or lower intensity exercise dispersed throughout a given week.

    If all you're doing is walking and what not, that's great and walking is great for the heart and a great way to be moving...but you don't really need a rest day. Rest days are to avoid beating the ****e out of your body 7 days per week with vigorous exercise.

    This. On my rest days I do something very low impact, if I do anything extra at all.
  • Iron_Lotus
    Iron_Lotus Posts: 2,295 Member
    If anything I go for walks. Some rest days I actually rest. It depends how I feel
  • lokecheer
    lokecheer Posts: 43 Member
    I have this same feeling. I just had one yesterday, and I basically did nothing....maybe a 1 mile walk. But what I did a lot of was stretching, since my muscles are sore from the previous days of vigorous Tapout XT.
  • annebaum41912
    annebaum41912 Posts: 87 Member
    No high intensity, vigorous exercise...letting the body rest. I'm still active...go for walks, ride my bike, do yoga, etc. Pretty much everyone who performs vigorous exercise should have 1-2 days per week of rest and/or lower intensity exercise dispersed throughout a given week.

    If all you're doing is walking and what not, that's great and walking is great for the heart and a great way to be moving...but you don't really need a rest day. Rest days are to avoid beating the ****e out of your body 7 days per week with vigorous exercise.

    Good deal. Then I guess I don't really "need" a rest day. I don't do much high intensity stuff. The most I do is little bouts of jogging as I've just started the cto5k program but of course that is only 3 days a week. I just read so much about rest days I was starting to think I should be taking one. Thanks guys :)
  • KANGOOJUMPS
    KANGOOJUMPS Posts: 6,474 Member
    i do not BELIEVE, is a rest day,,, i just do less of something.
  • MzzFaith
    MzzFaith Posts: 337 Member
    Sundays, because I am totally busy
  • JusticeGirl25
    JusticeGirl25 Posts: 703 Member
    A rest day for me is not working out at all, no light workouts or nothing.

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