Rest Days.. Do you need them?
SarenaWM
Posts: 51 Member
So I have a really hard time taking rest days. In fact, I haven't taken a total rest day in years. On a usual day I ride my bike for 60-90 minutes (leisure), do thirty minutes of strength training, and run for 30-45 minutes. I take an active rest day every few weeks where I just walk, do yoga or easy pilates, ride my bike.. still getting 2+ hours of physical activity, but not anything strenuous enough to get me sweating.
But even these active rest days leave me feeling guilty. I have read some articles that say that rest days aren't needed, and others that say they are mandatory to let your muscles grow and see any real definition in your body. To be honest, even though I eat well, am active, and am at a healthy weight.. I haven't seen any visible progress in my muscle definition.. and I wonder if over stressing my body is making it hold on to fat?
So I was just hoping to get some more opinions on this. What do you personally do?
But even these active rest days leave me feeling guilty. I have read some articles that say that rest days aren't needed, and others that say they are mandatory to let your muscles grow and see any real definition in your body. To be honest, even though I eat well, am active, and am at a healthy weight.. I haven't seen any visible progress in my muscle definition.. and I wonder if over stressing my body is making it hold on to fat?
So I was just hoping to get some more opinions on this. What do you personally do?
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Replies
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I don't quite relate to "feeling guilty" for active recovery days. That said, if you are lifting heavy you will need to rest - actually, your muscles will probably let you know this through pain, strain and possible injury. If you are lifting light with high repetitions you might get away with exercising the same muscle groups daily. But since what you are doing isn't providing the results you want, do something different
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2+ hours of activity on a rest day? I think you really need to step back and take a look at your attitude towards working out, it's bordering on obsessive.
A lot of factors come into play with regard to rest days. Current fitness, intensity of your day to day workouts, exercise history and stress in other areas of your life. I think every workout plan needs to be assessed individually when it comes to rest days. However, I do think that not resting because of guilt or other such behaviors is not a healthy relationship with exercise.0 -
So I have a really hard time taking rest days. In fact, I haven't taken a total rest day in years. On a usual day I ride my bike for 60-90 minutes (leisure), do thirty minutes of strength training, and run for 30-45 minutes. I take an active rest day every few weeks where I just walk, do yoga or easy pilates, ride my bike.. still getting 2+ hours of physical activity, but not anything strenuous enough to get me sweating.
But even these active rest days leave me feeling guilty. I have read some articles that say that rest days aren't needed, and others that say they are mandatory to let your muscles grow and see any real definition in your body. To be honest, even though I eat well, am active, and am at a healthy weight.. I haven't seen any visible progress in my muscle definition.. and I wonder if over stressing my body is making it hold on to fat?
So I was just hoping to get some more opinions on this. What do you personally do?
The line in bold says it all.0 -
I rest more days than I workout. Rest is GOOD!0
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In addition to noticing improvement and fitness gains when incorporating one rest day per week, I've been surprised by how much an occasional 2-3 days of rest results in my being stronger and having more stamina afterwards, when resuming workout-based physical activity.
To an extent, I suppose it could be considered somewhat obvious that rest (in addition to sleep) would end up being a kind of 'refresher' of sorts, when it comes to muscle... and I'm definitely familiar with what happens (heart rate -wise, perceived exertion -wise, and stamina-wise) if/when I don't have enough rest (or sleep).
As much as various aspects of what-rest-can-do-for-any-given-individual would undoubtedly be a function of many specifics associated with their body, as well as the nature of how, and to what extent, they engage in physical activity (among so much else)... my reality happens to involve an as-per-online-calculator 'fitness age' of someone half my age, along with physical activity that includes a good dose of cardio+strength combination activity on a stepmill as well as a stepper/climber, and those sporadic 2-3 days-in-a-row of rest that happen now and then seem to allow my body to engage in some kind of additional anabolic 'housekeeping' of sorts, given the nature of what I notice when resuming my workouts.
And the 'difference' always surprises me, as I anticipate the opposite -- I expect to have potentially deconditioned a bit, etc., but end up having 'gained'/'improved', and in ways that can seem counterintuitive -- but when I think about it, I can also see the logic in why such multiple days of rest could plausibly result in improvement. It feels as though my 'understanding' of this is stuck in a kind of logical quicksand, given that one could fashion an argument for 'what would happen if' that involves either of two seemingly conflicting outcomes (my mind feels as though it's about to implode, just pondering the myriad possibilities
).
Regardless, I will absolutely allow my body rest days (and even if the 'majority' of any such day ends up feeling more like a day of mental rest). Additionally, I track enough aspects, and notice how my body 'feels', and performs, to know that I actually improve, physically, strength-wise, and stamina-wise, in conjunction with sporadic spans of 2-3 sequential rest days -- and even if I don't ever end up knowing various specifics as to why, the empirical 'evidence' has provided consistent enough 'proof' for me to 'go with it', and to 'not sweat it' (no pun intended ). 0 -
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Yep, exactly. Talked to my physio about this recently when I had a week of doing lots every day and was crashing and burning towards the end, she said it's important to space it out - so exercise two days, take two days off, or one day, two days, whatever. Basically, exercising every day can be counter-productive, and you put your body under undue pressure by doing so!0
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Rest days are more important for someone who wants to build mass. They are essential for that. Also, people over 40 who are trying to bulk up need to rest even more.
The worry would be if you did the same exercises everyday which would put you at risk for overuse injuries... which would really dampen someones workout schedule.
You are young and active and you keep variety in your workouts / exercises / activity. I would not sweat it. Stay active.0 -
Rest is absolutely necessary for muscle recovery and over all health. There are many red flags that pop up when reading your post. You may need to seriously evaluate your mind set when it comes to fitness. Do you work out to be healthy? Are you happy with what you've accomplished? What are your goals? Walking and light activity like yoga can be fine for a rest day, but I'd say 2 hours is too much.
Reevaluate why you're doing this.0 -
Yes. In for rest.
I remember I used to feel guilty on a rest day. When I was a newbie I even made a thread about it. That is just hilarious. I relish them now. Tomorrow is one!0 -
So I have a really hard time taking rest days. In fact, I haven't taken a total rest day in years. On a usual day I ride my bike for 60-90 minutes (leisure), do thirty minutes of strength training, and run for 30-45 minutes. I take an active rest day every few weeks where I just walk, do yoga or easy pilates, ride my bike.. still getting 2+ hours of physical activity, but not anything strenuous enough to get me sweating.
But even these active rest days leave me feeling guilty. I have read some articles that say that rest days aren't needed, and others that say they are mandatory to let your muscles grow and see any real definition in your body. To be honest, even though I eat well, am active, and am at a healthy weight.. I haven't seen any visible progress in my muscle definition.. and I wonder if over stressing my body is making it hold on to fat?
So I was just hoping to get some more opinions on this. What do you personally do?
It seems like this might be your real question (in bold).
If your goal is to build muscle, then you probably need to lift harder. If you are starting out, to build muscle I would do 2-3 sets of 8 reps and when you can lift that weight to 12 reps, add more weight until you can only do 8.
I also almost always make my fourth set (could be third for you) go to failure around 3 reps ("failure" where you can't finish the rep). This builds strength so that you can lift heavier on your bulking lifts next time.
You still will only gain 1-2 pounds of muscle per month... so lift heavy.0 -
So I have a really hard time taking rest days. In fact, I haven't taken a total rest day in years. On a usual day I ride my bike for 60-90 minutes (leisure), do thirty minutes of strength training, and run for 30-45 minutes. I take an active rest day every few weeks where I just walk, do yoga or easy pilates, ride my bike.. still getting 2+ hours of physical activity, but not anything strenuous enough to get me sweating.
But even these active rest days leave me feeling guilty. I have read some articles that say that rest days aren't needed, and others that say they are mandatory to let your muscles grow and see any real definition in your body. To be honest, even though I eat well, am active, and am at a healthy weight.. I haven't seen any visible progress in my muscle definition.. and I wonder if over stressing my body is making it hold on to fat?
So I was just hoping to get some more opinions on this. What do you personally do?
When I hit the point where I was working out 2.5 hours a day, not seeing progress, and feeling guilty about taking even one day off or light--I got my rear to a therapist to face my compulsive exercise/exercise bulimia problem head-on before it got even further out of control.
But that's me.0 -
Hey I am doing a rest day today, because I basically can't move.
Question: when does that muscle repair process most need to be fuelled, if it is happening on the rest day? Day of lifting or day after?0 -
Rest days are as important as workout days. On workout days you tear and damage muscles. On rest days you repair and strengthen.0
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Your muscles don't grow while you're working out. They grow while you're recovering from working out.
A lot depends on what you're doing, though. You can lift ten-pound weights every day and you'll be fine because you're not causing any stress in the muscles that they need to recover from. But that's a consideration for later, after you've done the hard work of rethinking your relationship to exercise and your body.0 -
Lot's of interesting posts here, some based on fact, and some based on opinion.
First, working out 5-7days a week, is not a mental disorder. Athletes and body builders are two examples of people who can train 5-7days a week, and is perfectly acceptable. Other people may have physically intensive jobs that take place of training. It becomes a disorder when you feel guilty skipping a workout to the point of eating below your BMR caloric requirements consistently and feel a mental attachment to doing so. 2 hours of physical activity a day does not come close to constituting "over training".
This ended up being a longer post than expected, after I cut a lot of stuff out it's still long. So here's a quick overview:- Do I need to rest? - Maybe, it depends and I explain why.
- Training Schedule is Important - You can train 7 days a week if you are smart with your routine by building muscle group rest/recovery into your training.
- Muscle Breakdown and Recovery - Many factors affect muscle breakdown and growth.
- Am I overtraining?
Do I need to rest?
Regarding the necessity of rest days, the answer is the typical ambiguous "it depends." As many have mentioned above, your muscles need rest to rebuild. Does that mean you need to have an entire day where you do not train at all? Not necessarily - it depends on your training regimen.
Training Schedule is an Important Factor
I train 5-7days a week, however, I split my training days so that I don't work the same primary muscle group back-to-back. Keyword being primary muscle group. On chest day, the primary muscle group is the pectoral muscles, however the triceps and deltoids supplement the chest workout, but they are not the primary focus so they do not get much of a workout. This allows me to work my back the next day, even though I am still using my deltoids to supplement my exercises. The pectoral muscles are resting and repairing during my "back day" even though I am not resting. Also worth noting, I am not exhausting my deltoids, triceps, or biceps during "chest day" or "back day" since they are not the primary focus of my workout. So I have no problem using those muscles back-to-back (two days in a row).
Hopefully those two examples give an idea of how you can actively train 5-7 days a week, without a full day of rest and not inhibit muscle repair. A lot of it is in your routine. However, I typically have one day of active rest where I still hit the gym, and work a muscle group that I haven't worked as hard, or feel I can exhaust. Last week, I did abs, calves and cardio.
Muscle Breakdown and Recovery
Muscle breakdown is key to muscle growth. Everybody's muscles breakdown at different rates depending on their physiology, nutrition, supplmentation, and training program. The more we study muscle growth, the more we realize we don't know much about muscle growth. However, there is still a lot of good information out there on muscle recovery and muscle growth.
Nutrition plays a huge factor in muscle recovery (which also determines if you need a rest day). Ensuring you are getting a proper amount of BCAA's, protein, and restoring glycogen after your workout (think fast digesting dextrose) will make your recovery quicker. The quicker you can recover, the quicker you can train again, and the quicker you gain grow muscle. (Well, not that simple exactly, but you get the idea.)
Also, not all muscles are created equal. Some muscles have much denser muscle fiber and take a lot more effort and exertion to break down the muscles. Likewise, some muscles recover quicker depending on the density and muscle training. For example: I know I can get away training my calves every other day because of their density, and using periodic training so that my workouts vary.
Are you over training?
It's unlikely that you are overtraining with thirty minutes of strength training and 30-45mins of cardio. I didn't include the 60-90minutes of cycling because you say it's a leisurely ride, so you're unlikely breaking down muscle, depleting glycogen excessively, etc.
What does your strength training program look like? Are you trying to hit full body in 30 minutes? Are you working a specific muscle group each day?0 -
If you're just doing cardio every day, you probably don't really NEED a rest day. It's okay to be active every day....but feeling guilty about a rest day probably isn't a good sign.0
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I don't like to call it "rest day." I have changed my mindset to "repair day." Give your muscle a chance to repair themselves!0
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Thank you! I work a different muscle group every day, and run about 5k. If a particular muscle feels overworked, I try to avoid training it until it feels better. I am not new to this, I have be regularly working out and training for 4+ years.
I "feel guilty" because I don't want to take rest days just because people are telling me I should. But, I was being told that not taking at least one total rest day every couple weeks would cause my body to release stress hormones that would make my body hold onto fat. However, I would rather save these rest days in case I become sick or something happens in my life that prevents me from being able to workout. It's a little annoying that people are trying to diagnose me with a disorder. You hardly know enough about me to make such statements, and that's not something you should throw around so lightly.0 -
Rest days are an integral part of my fitness regimen...they are just as important as the actual work I put in...rest days allow me to recover and repair which in turn allows me to make fitness gains and become even more bad *kitten*...0
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Thank you! I work a different muscle group every day, and run about 5k. If a particular muscle feels overworked, I try to avoid training it until it feels better. I am not new to this, I have be regularly working out and training for 4+ years.
I "feel guilty" because I don't want to take rest days just because people are telling me I should. But, I was being told that not taking at least one total rest day every couple weeks would cause my body to release stress hormones that would make my body hold onto fat. However, I would rather save these rest days in case I become sick or something happens in my life that prevents me from being able to workout. It's a little annoying that people are trying to diagnose me with a disorder. You hardly know enough about me to make such statements, and that's not something you should throw around so lightly.
It doesn't work like that... You can't 'save' rest days. As someone has said, your muscles repair when you rest. A good exercise routine includes adequate rest days.0 -
I have a true rest day 1 day a week. However, I didn't start doing this from doing no exercise at all. Also, I've adjusted my macros accordingly to ensure I'm getting enough fuel for my body.0
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qn4bx9pzg8aifd wrote: »In addition to noticing improvement and fitness gains when incorporating one rest day per week, I've been surprised by how much an occasional 2-3 days of rest results in my being stronger and having more stamina afterwards, when resuming workout-based physical activity.
To an extent, I suppose it could be considered somewhat obvious that rest (in addition to sleep) would end up being a kind of 'refresher' of sorts, when it comes to muscle... and I'm definitely familiar with what happens (heart rate -wise, perceived exertion -wise, and stamina-wise) if/when I don't have enough rest (or sleep).
As much as various aspects of what-rest-can-do-for-any-given-individual would undoubtedly be a function of many specifics associated with their body, as well as the nature of how, and to what extent, they engage in physical activity (among so much else)... my reality happens to involve an as-per-online-calculator 'fitness age' of someone half my age, along with physical activity that includes a good dose of cardio+strength combination activity on a stepmill as well as a stepper/climber, and those sporadic 2-3 days-in-a-row of rest that happen now and then seem to allow my body to engage in some kind of additional anabolic 'housekeeping' of sorts, given the nature of what I notice when resuming my workouts.
And the 'difference' always surprises me, as I anticipate the opposite -- I expect to have potentially deconditioned a bit, etc., but end up having 'gained'/'improved', and in ways that can seem counterintuitive -- but when I think about it, I can also see the logic in why such multiple days of rest could plausibly result in improvement. It feels as though my 'understanding' of this is stuck in a kind of logical quicksand, given that one could fashion an argument for 'what would happen if' that involves either of two seemingly conflicting outcomes (my mind feels as though it's about to implode, just pondering the myriad possibilities ).
Regardless, I will absolutely allow my body rest days (and even if the 'majority' of any such day ends up feeling more like a day of mental rest). Additionally, I track enough aspects, and notice how my body 'feels', and performs, to know that I actually improve, physically, strength-wise, and stamina-wise, in conjunction with sporadic spans of 2-3 sequential rest days -- and even if I don't ever end up knowing various specifics as to why, the empirical 'evidence' has provided consistent enough 'proof' for me to 'go with it', and to 'not sweat it' (no pun intended ).
Really useful answer. Thanks!0 -
Thank you! I work a different muscle group every day, and run about 5k. If a particular muscle feels overworked, I try to avoid training it until it feels better. I am not new to this, I have be regularly working out and training for 4+ years.
Unless you are training for a marathon/triathlon, doing cardio everyday isn't going to lead to overtraining. Overtraining is from extreme exertion day after day without recovery. So unless you're doing an all out sprint 5k every day, you're likely okay!
Sounds like you have a good plan for the strength training. Maybe consider switching up your program every 4-6weeks and do 45-60mins weight training and 15-30mins of cardio. Another method that may work for you is adding cardio (like jump rope) between your sets/workouts while you're strength training.I "feel guilty" because I don't want to take rest days just because people are telling me I should.
Your body will tell you when you should. If you start noticing that you can't lift as heavy, or as many reps, and it's not just an off day, that's one sign you need rest.But, I was being told that not taking at least one total rest day every couple weeks would cause my body to release stress hormones that would make my body hold onto fat.
That sounds to me like somebody taking a generalized observation and applying it to every situation without proper examination of the variables.
The hormone you are speaking of is cortisol. There's a lot of biochemistry about cortisol's influence on the body, way more than most people care about. Cortisol is a necessary hormone to regulate your body's functions. Yes, if your cortisol levels are too high, your body will be more catabolic (breakdown muscle tissue/store fats). However, there have been no studies that have confirmed that high levels of cortisol turn carbohydrates into fats more than normal levels of cortisol. People just tend to eat more when they are stressed, and when you're stressed, your body has elevated cortisol levels (it's an adrenal hormone) - but correlation does not equal causation.
If you're truly concerned about your cortisol levels and over training, go get blood work and have your cortisol levels checked. There are many factors that influence cortisol levels outside of training.However, I would rather save these rest days in case I become sick or something happens in my life that prevents me from being able to workout.
Unfortunately, you can't "save" rest days. Your muscles can't just exhaust themselves and wait to repair until you're sick or unable to workout. It's just best to work different muscle groups and let your muscles recover/rest while you're doing some other workout (see my chest/back example above).It's a little annoying that people are trying to diagnose me with a disorder. You hardly know enough about me to make such statements, and that's not something you should throw around so lightly.
Just ignore it.0 -
It sounds like you really do have some sort of unhealthy addiction to exercise, taking it to levels that could be more self harm than good.0
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Rest days are bulk days in more ways than one... I have a physical job and active hobbies. I normally spend 6-8 hours a day on me feet, minimum, and will typically burn 1500-2000 calories over my BMR.
When I don't get much activity, say I'm on a roadtrip or get sucked into a video game, my appetite doesn't decrease at all. In fact, it can increase. And just eating the same amount as usual would be gaining half a pound of fat every day.0 -
contingencyplan wrote: »It sounds like you really do have some sort of unhealthy addiction to exercise, taking it to levels that could be more self harm than good.
What evidence are you basing this on?
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motorsportcfd wrote: »contingencyplan wrote: »It sounds like you really do have some sort of unhealthy addiction to exercise, taking it to levels that could be more self harm than good.
What evidence are you basing this on?
Did you miss her feeling guilty about the concept of a rest day?
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motorsportcfd wrote: »contingencyplan wrote: »It sounds like you really do have some sort of unhealthy addiction to exercise, taking it to levels that could be more self harm than good.
What evidence are you basing this on?
Feelings of actual guilt for taking a rest day or missing a workout or whatever doesn't exactly scream healthy relationship with fitness...0
This discussion has been closed.
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