How many rest days do I need a week?

girlalmighty08
girlalmighty08 Posts: 130 Member
edited November 27 in Fitness and Exercise
I've been on a solid streak of eating right and working out for the past two months and I'm loving all my workouts at the gym. I find it really hard to take a rest day and am just wondering how many I should be taking per week? My workouts generally consists of resistance training and cardio in the gym and I go for about 1.5 hours a day.

Can I get by with just one a week or should I be giving my body more time to recover?

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    90 minutes every day? A bit more detail about your workouts would be useful.

    Rest is an important part of any good training plan, and also fueling your workouts properly.
  • merisaOct3
    merisaOct3 Posts: 197 Member
    I think one true rest day a week is important to avoid injury and burnout. I also like one day a week that is specifically for low intensity stretching like a yoga class or video. It's really important to give your muscles some recovery time since you're breaking them down to build them up. I am not a Dr or fitness professional, so this is totally my personal opinion.
  • yesimpson
    yesimpson Posts: 1,372 Member
    I train 4-5 days, and take one total rest day per week, where I'll potter around the house, around the shops, for a coffee etc., but won't aim for 10,000 steps. The other day I'll make sure to get a good walk in, might do something fun like play badminton, but nothing strenuous or with training goals in mind.
  • KathyApplebaum
    KathyApplebaum Posts: 188 Member
    I train 5-6 days a week (2 strength, 3-4 bike/run), and do at least one active rest day (walk the dogs 2-3 miles, which I also do on some training days).
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
    How intense are your workouts - are you progressively increasing the difficulty of what you're doing in order to force your body to adapt and improve? If so, I wouldn't exercise the same muscles more than once at that level of intensity every two days as a rule of thumb.

    If you're not really increasing the difficulty of the workout, once your body has adapted to that level of exertion you won't make additional gains in terms of more strength, etc., but you also won't need that time to recover.

    Overtraining - pushing a muscle too much in too short of a time - would manifest itself as a reduction in strength of that muscle until you took sufficient time off to recover.
  • L_Master
    L_Master Posts: 354 Member
    edited January 2016
    Resistance training I'm sure is totally different.

    From the endurance athlete side of things, it really depends on where you are at. The simple answer is just the bare minimum you need to avoid burnout and allow for recovery. Remember, it's between workouts where fitness is built, workouts just stress the system to set up the stimulus for improvement.

    How often that is depends on where you are as an athlete. In my case, 60-90 mins of easy spinning on the bike is a good rest day for me. The other days I'm riding anywhere from 2-5 hours, some of those days with harder efforts. For a newer runner/cyclist a complete rest day might be needed several times a week.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    1-2 depending on my schedule. I had one today nd my next one will be wednesday, as my ex has a dr appointment i have to take him to first thing in the morning. but even on my rest days i take a jog or walk at night.

    it all depends on your goals and your current fitness level
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