Rest Days

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Fayve
Fayve Posts: 411 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hey guys,

I wanted some opinions on exercise rest days. I've heard again and again that they're extremely important in order to progress in weight loss. Is this an overall rest, or do they just mean rest for your muscles?

When I work-out, one day I'll spend 40 minutes or so weight training, with about 20 or 30 minutes of cardio. The other day, I'll go purely for cardio, or machines like the stairmaster or rowing machines. Rinse and repeat.

Since I'm giving my muscles a rest from resistance training, do I still need to include rest days? I want to take a day off, but I'm nervous about it: I start school in a little over 2 weeks, and I'm anxious to take full advantage of all the free time I have now, since I don't think I'll have time to work out 1-2 hours a day once I'm in school.

Or maybe do you recommend taking a rest day, but still doing something like walking, or in my case today, walking and carrying groceries (mixing up what the body gets used to)?

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Replies

  • alex51026
    alex51026 Posts: 71
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    I don't know if it is right, but I don't do a rest day. I only lift MWF and run the other days. I don't really think a 3 mile run that takes 24 minutes really qualifies as a hard workout day. If I were lifting only, then I definitely take off a day between lift days....

    Keep up the great work!
  • girlruns
    girlruns Posts: 344
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    One day a week I take a complete rest day (Friday's). I MIGHT get in a walk or something very light, but I actually make an effort to do as little as possible. To put it in perspective-I am in marathon training and need this day off--especially since I kick my own butt with my weekend workouts.

    If you are feeling good, 1 day off a week should be fine. If you start to feel worn down, or you are really pushing it every day, 2 days off might be better. However, I wouldn't make these consecutive rest days.

    If it helps you justify it, you only get better/stronger when your muscles have time to repair themselves which they can't do when you are continually breaking them down with workouts (and yes, this means cardio too).

    Good luck, and enjoy a day off!
  • krissy_pooo
    krissy_pooo Posts: 111 Member
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    my trainer told me to do my weight training 3 days a week, with a rest day inbetween... and to do cardio no more than 3 times a week. He also said on your off days (which should be 3 ish days a week) you can do something enjoyable like a sport or a walk or something! good luck!
  • RichB77
    RichB77 Posts: 88
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    Leave at least 48 hours between strength training sessions to allow your muscles to recover.

    You can do cardio everyday if you want, but i find a day off allows me to be more intensive when i do workout.

    If you did wwant to step your game up, maybe do one hard cardio session and then the next day do a different one at maybe 60/70% intensity?

    I find i work better having had some recovery time.

    Good luck on your journey tho :drinker:
  • Fayve
    Fayve Posts: 411 Member
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    Thanks so much you guys :) I think I'll take a rest day today, but it's still early, so we'll see how I feel in another 5 or 6 hours, haha.
  • ITTYbitty04
    ITTYbitty04 Posts: 75 Member
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    Fayve I'm not really sure either. I have always read that your muscles need rest inbetween workouts that involve weight lifting, but im not sure if the same applies to geneal cardio. When I do weight lifting I try to alternate days inbetween my curcuit training routince. but for most of my days I strive to do at least 45-60 minutes of cardio. I too was wondering if I was doing to much and need to have rest days inbetween where I do absolutely nothing. I try to switch up my cardio between bike riding, the elliptical and walking so my muscles don't get fatigued from doing the same thing.

    I am so focued on finally losing the weight that I do someting everyday and only take a rest on maybe saturday or sunday. So that amount to cardio three days a week and weights 3 days a week( which I haven't done in a week or so, been working on increasing my endurance with cardio)

    :happy: not sure if that will answer your question but thought I'd reply anyway. I think it all comes down to what is best for your body and the results you are trying to reach. different things work for different people!
    Good luck with finding what works for you!!
  • Mike523
    Mike523 Posts: 393 Member
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    Remember that your heart is a muscle too, and it benefits from a rest day just as much as your other muscles.
  • cardbucfan
    cardbucfan Posts: 10,396 Member
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    I take Sunday as my rest day mostly because I prefer to go the gym first thing in the morning and Sunday is my only day to sleep in a little! But, we usually do something active that day as a family-bike ride, clean the attic (!), or play in the pool. I also play 18 holes of golf on Tuesdays and that's a rest day from pure working out.
  • Ezwoldo
    Ezwoldo Posts: 369 Member
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    I take between 1 to 3 rest days a week depending on work and what races are on at weekend, I have a complete break from any training every 8 weeks just to recharge more than anything I still ride to work but that is not really training, this suits me as when I come back from my week out I find I can hit it harder than before.
  • cacrat
    cacrat Posts: 336 Member
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    I generally take at least 2 days a week to rest. And right around my hardest workouts.

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