Anyone else not taking a true "rest day?"

A 3 mile walk sounds pretty restful. No one need confine themselves to wheelchairs and bed rest on rest days

No need to stop *all* activity on a rest day. Just don't do your regular training. If your usual training is very intense, you may want to stick with things like yoga and walking on rest day, but otherwise, you can do pretty much anything that is different from your workouts.

When I am training for a fight, I generally do a short run, an hour or two of yoga, and about 5 miles of walking on my rest days.

ETA: while activity is ok on a rest day, it's not required if you don't want to. When I'm not "in training", I pretty much do zero exercise on Sundays (unless Netflix marathons count).

Personally I love working out, but I also love love love days I can just veg out on the couch and do nothing. Which is kinda weird since I consider myself quite an active person. I guess I just really need that one day to rest and get energy for a new week

Thea519 wrote: »

Good advice here. I guess I should've also mentioned that I'm far from a "finely tuned athletic machine."

I'm 5'10 and 267 lbs. My walks are always outside (I live in lower Alabama, so it's like a million degrees all the time) and I walk at 3.5-4 mph. I've been working out and eating healthy for 3 months now, so the walks are definitely easier, but not what I would call restful.

It's good to know that what I'm doing isn't technically harmful, though. Thanks guys!

Sounds like you are doing great. I walk at the same pace, and had trouble walking a mile at first. Now I can do 4 mile pretty easy in a little over an hour.

Keep up the good work.

Thea519 wrote: »

I never take a true rest day. The absolutely least I do on any given day is a 3 mile walk. Is this potentially harmful? Anyone else not taking a real rest day? Is there any reason I should be taking one??

I rest my body in sections by laying off certain routines.
If I hit the free weights, I rest from free weights for 4 days while I hike, bike or swim.
If I train MMA, I rest from that 2 days while I might play tennis, perform calisthenics, dance or jump on a trampoline.
And so on...

I have taken 100% rest days where i do absolutely nothing for several days prior to a powerlifting meet, but otherwise my regular rest days are filled with lots of activitie like walking , gardening, playing, etc

I have added running after my 5x5 on my on days and walking several miles on my off days. I have committed to a 10K in about 5 weeks time.

I do still prioritize the weights though, I only do my miles afterwords to avoid compromising performance under the bar and I only walk on my off days to allow good recovery for the next session of lifting.

Not only is strength training my priority now but I would rather come up short during a run than a lift, not finishing the route is a lot less risky than not finishing a heavy press lol.

I take a complete rest day (such as today I logged only 1k steps and no workout just some stretches) once a week. If I don't I seem to rack up injures over time.

I still get my 12000 steps on my rest days. It usually from walking and not going to gym or running.

I don't think there is anything physically harmful with that, but if you start to get bored or burned out mentally, there's nothing wrong with taking some rest days here and there. I walk a lot separate from my actual exercise routine and don't consider that rest, but mentally I'm just not someone that wants to work out 6 or 7 days a week. If you enjoy it keep it up, but no shame in taking a few rest days either.

I prefer active rest days. Sundays are my supposed rest days but I have my weekly softball game and usually get a walk in plus house work and whatever else. Anytime I just sit around on the couch for an entire day I find myself worse off, more sore, more stiff. Active rest works better for me.

Yoga, walking, pilates, all are tools on my rest days. I feel better.