Excercise Rest Days: Do you need them if all you do is cardio?

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Icebunny33
Icebunny33 Posts: 30
edited February 2015 in Introduce Yourself
Anyone? Anyone?

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  • Crystalrae1977
    Crystalrae1977 Posts: 3
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    I would say no need for rest days if it's mild cardio daily ( brisk walking ) but running, especially long runs, puts pressure on your joints so it's good to take a break here and there. I would say if you are working out on joint friendly machines like an elliptical .. It's fine. Any reason you only do cardio?
  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
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    My vote is yes. Especially if you go hard 6 days out of the week.

    That doesn't mean go totally inactive, though. Maybe take a long walk or something.
  • Raynne413
    Raynne413 Posts: 1,527 Member
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    Your body will tell you if you need to rest. For me, I'll be really tired, hard time concentrating, good cravings, and highly irritable. Once I hit that point, I know I need a rest day. :)
  • Icebunny33
    Icebunny33 Posts: 30
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    I do Zumba and when I first did it in combo with MFP I lost about 25 pounds in a few months... (I was 252 at my heaviest and got down to 230 even). It wasnt hard on my joints and i actually liked doing it. This time around though, I am starting out almost 20 pounds heavier than my initial heaviest when I started 3 years ago (I am up to 275). Its something I feel good doing because for me its fun.... not your typical workout dvd. I have heard lifting weights is good, but I feel like I need to know more about that to actually benefit from it. I dont think that I could walk into a gym tomorrow, do any reps of any kind of machine or weights and feel like I know what Im doing and exactly how im benefiting.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    It depends...not all cardio is created equally. There's a huge difference between training and logging the miles necessary to train for a century ride and hitting the gym and doing a little work on the elliptical. The later likely wouldn't require much in the way of recovery where the former most definitely would.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    I am advised to take a rest day between run days to allow my muscles to recover. I do 2.5 K which takes about thirty minutes every other day. My physiotherapist has just advised me to dial it back a little (Zumba on a rest day!) and add some stretches to work out an imbalance (stiff hips, wobbly knees).
  • Icebunny33
    Icebunny33 Posts: 30
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    When I do Zumba, I usually burn an average of 100 calories every 10 minutes, and I like that I can still benefit from Zumba even if I dont do all the moves as intense as the instructors. I can make my own modifications, break anytime and still feel accomplished.
  • Icebunny33
    Icebunny33 Posts: 30
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    jgnatca wrote: »
    I am advised to take a rest day between run days to allow my muscles to recover. I do 2.5 K which takes about thirty minutes every other day. My physiotherapist has just advised me to dial it back a little (Zumba on a rest day!) and add some stretches to work out an imbalance (stiff hips, wobbly knees).

    I was one of those kids that hit puberty late and suffered "growing pains" well into my 20's. Im thinking of doing cardio every other day, and maybe researching weights to do on my "off" Zumba days.

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