How important are rest days

rikkejanell2014
rikkejanell2014 Posts: 312 Member
edited November 14 in Fitness and Exercise
As far as working out?

Replies

  • Mycophilia
    Mycophilia Posts: 1,225 Member
    edited January 2017
    Short answer: Yes

    Long answer: Enjoy
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    They are as important as the actual workouts themselves....
  • rikkejanell2014
    rikkejanell2014 Posts: 312 Member
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    They are as important as the actual workouts themselves....

    Ok because i always feel like i want to work out on my rest days.
  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,619 Member
    Idk, I don't really take rest days unless sick or injured.
  • jessef593
    jessef593 Posts: 2,272 Member
    For growth. More important than lifting days
  • Willbenchforcupcakes
    Willbenchforcupcakes Posts: 4,955 Member
    Rest days are normally more of intellectual enjoyment than a physical enjoyment. But at least two of them happen every week
  • bionicdiver
    bionicdiver Posts: 198 Member
    I find rest days are important if you are into lifting weights. A rest day from lifting weights allows the body recover and helps with the soreness. However, on my 'rest' days, I usually do some type of cardio...either HIIT or light, fat burning cardio. I like to call my cardio days..'active resting'.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    edited January 2017
    Depends on what you're doing...

    Also, a lot of people make the mistake of thinking a rest day means doing nothing....I still walk on my rest day...I do yoga, etc...I might do a little recovery ride...I'm just resting from more strenuous exercise activity to allow my body to recover and mitigating injury...having a rest day or two every week is a lot better than wearing your body down and needing to take weeks or months off...

    But it really depends on what you're doing...if you're primarily doing light to moderate cardio, you're probably fine.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    rikkejanell2014 wrote: »
    As far as working out?

    People define "working out" differently. To me it means lifting weights, one definitely shouldn't lift every day of the week.

    However, if you're referring to a group exercise class type thing, you don't necessarily need a rest day from that.

    I'm taking a rest day today cuz New Years, but in general I like to get in some sort of activity every day. I lift 2-3 times per week, and walk or do yoga or something most days.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    Absolutely essential.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    For me they are very important. While I still engage in active rest most days (walking, yoga etc) I lift 3-4x per week, because I do lower body on all those days it is very taxing and for me rest and recovery is essential for continued progress.
  • Cylphin60
    Cylphin60 Posts: 863 Member
    I need my rest days for sure. I'd call them very important. I do still stretch, lots of walking etc, on rest days though.
  • rikkejanell2014
    rikkejanell2014 Posts: 312 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    rikkejanell2014 wrote: »
    As far as working out?

    People define "working out" differently. To me it means lifting weights, one definitely shouldn't lift every day of the week.

    However, if you're referring to a group exercise class type thing, you don't necessarily need a rest day from that.

    I'm taking a rest day today cuz New Years, but in general I like to get in some sort of activity every day. I lift 2-3 times per week, and walk or do yoga or something most days.

    Cardio and resistance
  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,619 Member
    I think as long as you are alternating and listening to your body, you should be fine.
  • kgeyser
    kgeyser Posts: 22,505 Member
    I think rest days are important whether it's cardio or weights, both to heal and reduce the chance of injury. Repetitive motion injuries can happen from even what people would consider "light or moderate" exercise, so it's important to give your body a break.

    I understand the "not wanting to take a rest day" thing - maybe you could make your workouts for those days some yoga or light stretching? I used to do 15-30 min videos of yoga or stretching, it let me feel like I was still doing something, and I think the extra time devoted to just stretching helped overall.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,745 Member
    As others have said, it depends on how hard you are working when you are working out and how you define rest and also how new you are to regular exercise. If you are new to an activity, you absolutely need rest days to prevent injury. If you've been doing it for a while, you can get away with just doing a less strenuous form of exercise, like walking or biking or yoga or even very short easy jogs if you are a runner.
  • Cave_Goose
    Cave_Goose Posts: 156 Member
    I find it interesting that everyone is jumping in with advice without asking what you are doing, how long you are doing it, and what intensity you are doing it. If you are doing doing 10 minutes of body weight exercises per day, rest days aren't all that important. If you are doing 30 minutes of intense cardio or heavy lifting, then rest days are essential.

    Another aspect about rest days is mental. Today starts Day 1 of training for my third marathon. I love to run, but if I did it every day, I'd get sick of it. In fact, as I get closer to each marathon, I almost get sick of the regiment. Rest days repair the body and get the mind ready for the next workout.

    Better to anxiously anticipate your next workout on your rest day, than to resent it.
  • rikkejanell2014
    rikkejanell2014 Posts: 312 Member
    Cave_Goose wrote: »
    I find it interesting that everyone is jumping in with advice without asking what you are doing, how long you are doing it, and what intensity you are doing it. If you are doing doing 10 minutes of body weight exercises per day, rest days aren't all that important. If you are doing 30 minutes of intense cardio or heavy lifting, then rest days are essential.

    Another aspect about rest days is mental. Today starts Day 1 of training for my third marathon. I love to run, but if I did it every day, I'd get sick of it. In fact, as I get closer to each marathon, I almost get sick of the regiment. Rest days repair the body and get the mind ready for the next workout.

    Better to anxiously anticipate your next workout on your rest day, than to resent it.

    I posted cardio and resistance. 300-400 burned a day
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Recovery time is needed. It doesn't always mean complete rest. You cannot push, push, push every day, but you can do some activity on a daily basis and still recover.

    Taking that course will always put you at risk for overtraining, so you need to monitor your condition and you need to be willing to take a complete break if necessary.
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    Azdak wrote: »
    Recovery time is needed. It doesn't always mean complete rest. You cannot push, push, push every day, but you can do some activity on a daily basis and still recover.

    Taking that course will always put you at risk for overtraining, so you need to monitor your condition and you need to be willing to take a complete break if necessary.

    This is exactly my philosophy.

    I have a chronic health condition that requires movement to manage, but that also induces fatigue. I have to always assess how I'm feeling and respect what my body is capable of.

    Saying that, I very rarely have to take a complete rest day, but there have been days where I've planned to lift that I've had to say... nope, not happening today.

    I always manage to at least walk most days, no matter what. My joints stiffen up too much if I don't.
  • SingingSingleTracker
    SingingSingleTracker Posts: 1,866 Member
    rikkejanell2014 wrote: »
    As far as working out?
    rikkejanell2014 wrote: »
    As far as working out?

    As many have mentioned, it all depends on your goals and your training stress for each "workout".

    Major league starting baseball pitchers do not start another game without taking 4 days off between their previous start. On those off days, they stretch and only run on the day after pitching (no throwing), do active recovery on day's 2/3/4 which includes beginning with light throwing and building back up to start again.

    Same with professional opera singers. They take at least 2 - 3 days between performances so the soft tissue can heal, recover, and grow stronger.

    Study the training effect and supercompensation to see why rest and recovery are the most important portion of the equation to improve in terms of bigger/stronger/faster.

    In periodized training, not only will you have "rest and recovery days", but you will also have rest and recovery weeks. I just finished 2 weeks of heavy training for bicycling that involved 13 1/2 hours, and 15 hours respectively. Starting tomorrow, I am in a rest and recovery week that has within the week 4 days of active recovery built in, and a lighter training stress load throughout the week for only a total of 10 hours to allow my body to build back up and hit it hard for the two weeks after that.

    If one is only working out 30 - 45 minutes per day doing lighter loads - be it cardio or weights - the amount of recovery time between sessions can be a lot less than someone who is really overloading their system with training stress.

    There is no shortage of information on the training effect so you can see in charts and learn about how, when, and why to take a rest and or active recovery day.
  • Charlene_1985
    Charlene_1985 Posts: 122 Member
    I run 30 miles per week. 6,4,6,off,5,9, off. That's what I am medically cleared to do right now after a hip injury. On the off days, I might ride, or swim but I always make sure I get my 15K steps in. I also do some body weight exercises like push-ups and squats on *MOST* days. I stay active 7 days a week, but only perform my "chosen" workout 5 days. It works for me.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,630 Member
    I also don't take rest days unless I am sick or injured.

    However, I do vary what I do quite a bit.

    One day I might cycle 100 km ... the next I might walk 2 km.
  • NoMeatAthlete66
    NoMeatAthlete66 Posts: 12 Member
    GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »
    Azdak wrote: »
    Recovery time is needed. It doesn't always mean complete rest. You cannot push, push, push every day, but you can do some activity on a daily basis and still recover.

    Taking that course will always put you at risk for overtraining, so you need to monitor your condition and you need to be willing to take a complete break if necessary.

    This is exactly my philosophy.

    I have a chronic health condition that requires movement to manage, but that also induces fatigue. I have to always assess how I'm feeling and respect what my body is capable of.

    Saying that, I very rarely have to take a complete rest day, but there have been days where I've planned to lift that I've had to say... nope, not happening today.

    I always manage to at least walk most days, no matter what. My joints stiffen up too much if I don't.

    I have the same strategies: I rarely take a break but sometimes my body says "it's not happening today". If so, I aim for an active-recovery day (outdoor biking, eleptical, light jog...)
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