Rest days:for champs or chumps?
LittleLionGirl1304
Posts: 24 Member
I usually push myself to burn at least 400 calories in a day by running, rowing or cycling and I rarely take a rest day. But I'm starting to wonder, is there a benefit, weight loss wise, to taking rest days? The days I do take a rest day I feel really gross about myself, and its really hard to keep a calorie deficit without the exercise.
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Everyone in every sport needs a rest day or days every week.
Also everyone needs to deload for at least a week, but it could be more depending on what you've just put your body though. I've hit more PR's after a good deload week than in the middle of a program.2 -
Benefit for weight loss, no. Benefit for good physical and mental health, definitely.6
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But I'm starting to wonder, is there a benefit, weight loss wise, to taking rest days? - not for fat loss. For health and exercise performance, maybe (depending on your routine and your capabilities). But your routine hardly sounds extreme. A bit too focussed on calorie burns and cardio though. Going to be doing the same routine at maintenance when you get to goal weight?
The days I do take a rest day I feel really gross about myself - That's really sad to have such low self-esteem.
It's really hard to keep a calorie deficit without the exercise - Having some days at maintenance isn't going to make a scrap of difference in the long term. Stop thinking day to day.
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sychun1304 wrote: »But I'm starting to wonder, is there a benefit, weight loss wise, to taking rest days?
The benefit of rest days is recovery from the stresses that training places on your system. If you don't take an opportunity for recovery your improvement will be slower than it could be.The days I do take a rest day I feel really gross about myself
That's quite an unhealthy way to view things.
Exercise isn't about burning calories, but about improving your fitness. Set yourself performance goals, rather than activity goals. Come up with a plan to reach those goals and work to it.
That plan should allow for recovery.
Measure outcomes, not activity. Activity is meaningless if it's not supporting progress.
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I'm doing T25 ( HIIT exercise) and I'm taking a rest day once a week. Also, this week I finish bthe program and planning bro take a whole week off before I start another program. I noticed that I can't push a s hard during workout and my whole body aches and I'm just tired. So, my body I think she said begging for a rest;)0
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Everyone needs rest. It is when the body recovers.3
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Speaking as someone who did too much and ended up with an injury that put me back to square one with my running (after a lot of physio sessions, loads of strengthening exercises and plenty of yoga.... and STILL my knee bothers me if I do too much running and not enough yoga), I would say rest days are totally essential. You are asking for trouble if you don't rest.2
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sychun1304 wrote: »I usually push myself to burn at least 400 calories in a day by running, rowing or cycling and I rarely take a rest day. But I'm starting to wonder, is there a benefit, weight loss wise, to taking rest days? The days I do take a rest day I feel really gross about myself, and its really hard to keep a calorie deficit without the exercise.
Seems like your problem is with your self image. Rest days are important...
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Fridays are my rest days... Rest days are very much needed and it is important to give your body and mind a day to heal. I know on Fridays that my calories will be lower as I will not have extra calories to play with. Fridays work for me as it is the last day of the work week before the weekend so I get home from work, have a light dinner and assume the position on the couch.
If you are feeling that way about yourself because you are not working out for that particular day then you have to ask yourself why? Why is your self image so low? I think when you can be honest with yourself about that, your mind set will change for the better. Good luck! 1 -
sychun1304 wrote: »I usually push myself to burn at least 400 calories in a day by running, rowing or cycling and I rarely take a rest day. But I'm starting to wonder, is there a benefit, weight loss wise, to taking rest days? The days I do take a rest day I feel really gross about myself, and its really hard to keep a calorie deficit without the exercise.
For what you're doing, you don't need a rest day. Get some good sleep at night, and you've got your bases covered.1 -
The body needs rest at some point. It is wise to take a rest day.2
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Rest days allow the body to focus on healing bruised muscles and reconstructing those that need growth. Make no mistake, even that process consumes calories, a workout calorie consumption doesn't stop when the workout stop, for some exercises depending on intensity of course, the benefit calorie-wise might last for 48 hours.1
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I think rest days are important, however there are different approaches to them. I take "active" rest days, where I run for 3 miles slow. Enough to get the kinks out of my legs before my hard leg day on Monday. If you're going hard every day, you're going to get injured eventually. Just listen to your body, that'll be the number one indicator.
Running 3 miles and slow is a nice mental break from heavy lifting and running long/faster for me.1 -
It's all individualized.
Using the cliche bucket of water metaphor, in order to have peak performance you need to put in adequate rest (full rest or active rest) equal to what you take out in your chosen sport/activity. How much recovery needed is based on far too many factors, and thus individualized.
Are you making progress in your goals? How is your health and energy? All of these are directly affected by your ability to recover.
For the majority of the masses, I personally feel people do not work hard enough. That being said, there are certainly people that beat themselves into the ground because they do not have the discipline or understanding that recovery is essential to their goals.
Just my 2 cents.1 -
Rest days is important. Not only its recovers, re-energize your body, it also burns fat whilst resting. Never look down at rest as insignificant.2
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Anyone who has a training program to progress their body needs to build in rest time.
Rest is the # 1 overlooked training aid for athletes.
period.
no questions asked.4 -
IMO, if you do not need rest, you are not training hard enough...2
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Take a rest day when your training plan calls for one.
If you're not on a training plan, there's a good chance you don't need a rest day. If you're not on a training plan, listen to your body. If you start feeling very sore or have no energy and feel lethargic, or start dreading an exercise you normally enjoy, take a rest day (or two!).
Rest and recovery are a necessary part of all exercise, but how much you need depends on what you're doing for exercise. For a lot of people, the rest of the data, that night's sleep, and the next morning are plenty of time for recovery.
You can chart this out scientifically if you like to have a visual.2 -
Rest from strenuous training is important for recovery and thus performance. Rest and recovery is just as important as the training load. Note that rest doesn't necessarily mean doing nothing (though it could)...I typically have active recovery days..go for a walk, recreational bike ride with the kids, a nice easy hike in the mountains, yoga, etc...and sometimes my wife just wants me to get some yard work done.2
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Rest days are important, but its also important to keep in mind that a rest day for people who are doing a lot of training may still include burning more than 400 calories in exercise. I suppose the question whether you need to take a rest day is best answered by determining how painful your normal effort is. If it isn't difficult for you then you don't need a rest day. If it causes soreness, then you definitely need to rest once in a while.0
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Not sure it has anything with weight loss. However for overall physical fitness I would say rest days are extremely important, as far as weight training is concerned. Your muscles need a chance to recover because if you don't you are less likely to progress as quickly as you would otherwise if that makes sense. A lot of people do yoga or light cardio on their rest days and that's totally fine.
Plus I think people forget or don't realize that there is such a thing as over working your muscles and working out too much.1 -
Benefit from a weight loss perspective......no and if you're mixing up your workouts between running, riding & rowing (3 of my favourites) you're probably getting enough recovery too.
Of the 3 activities running is the one that requires the most recovery time due to it's high impact but even then, depending on how long you been running for and how intense your runs are you may not even require recovery days between runs (assuming you're varying time and intensity)
The time the that recovery is really important (in my opinion) is when you're first starting out and going through a lot of physiological adaptations or when you're striving for significant improvements.
Not to minimize the OPs workouts but at 400 cal per day that's not too likely.Plus I think people forget or don't realize that there is such a thing as over working your muscles and working out too much.2 -
Earlier this month I had a minor cold but didn't want to mess up my workout schedule so I didn't take a de-load week.
Instead, I wore myself out more, made recovery from the cold take longer and pulled a muscle.
So now Doc says I may be ready to start back in but protocol says to drop the intensity (~ 90% of previous weight and work back up) to make up for the layoff.
The drop means I basically lose around 9 weeks of progress in total.
That is over 2 months (!) because I didn't want to take it easy for 1 week.
Why did I do it? Well I pushed myself because I was so close to my lifting goals!
But now I am further away as a result. Hindsight is 20/20.
This is all while I know that proper rest and recovery is important.
It is easy to push ourselves hard because we are accustomed to it.
But that means we may drive ourselves too hard out of determination, ego, habit, whatever.
I forget I am nearing 50 years old, but my body keeps finding ways to remind me these days.
Rest days are important. I have just proved it to myself.
From now on I will try to err on the side of caution.
If Intelligence means learning from your mistakes then Wisdom is learning from the mistakes of others.
As for the effects on weight loss, is it easier to exercise and hit your calorie deficit or to hit it without exercise?
No brainer, right? So rest as often as necessary to exercise as efficiently as possible.3 -
BrianSharpe wrote: »Benefit from a weight loss perspective......no and if you're mixing up your workouts between running, riding & rowing (3 of my favourites) you're probably getting enough recovery too.
Of the 3 activities running is the one that requires the most recovery time due to it's high impact but even then, depending on how long you been running for and how intense your runs are you may not even require recovery days between runs (assuming you're varying time and intensity)
The time the that recovery is really important (in my opinion) is when you're first starting out and going through a lot of physiological adaptations or when you're striving for significant improvements.
Not to minimize the OPs workouts but at 400 cal per day that's not too likely.Plus I think people forget or don't realize that there is such a thing as over working your muscles and working out too much.
Ha ha I should've been more specific....I was just saying in general, not particularly just to the OP.
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TimothyFish wrote: »Rest days are important, but its also important to keep in mind that a rest day for people who are doing a lot of training may still include burning more than 400 calories in exercise. I suppose the question whether you need to take a rest day is best answered by determining how painful your normal effort is. If it isn't difficult for you then you don't need a rest day. If it causes soreness, then you definitely need to rest once in a while.
Yes, I can do that on an easy recovery ride.0 -
But I'm starting to wonder, is there a benefit, weight loss wise, to taking rest days? - not for fat loss. For health and exercise performance, maybe (depending on your routine and your capabilities). But your routine hardly sounds extreme. A bit too focussed on calorie burns and cardio though. Going to be doing the same routine at maintenance when you get to goal weight?
The days I do take a rest day I feel really gross about myself - That's really sad to have such low self-esteem.
It's really hard to keep a calorie deficit without the exercise - Having some days at maintenance isn't going to make a scrap of difference in the long term. Stop thinking day to day.
when i say i feel gross about myself, i mean that i just don't feel right. like my day hasn't been completed and it makes me kind of uncomfortable.
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sychun1304 wrote: »But I'm starting to wonder, is there a benefit, weight loss wise, to taking rest days? - not for fat loss. For health and exercise performance, maybe (depending on your routine and your capabilities). But your routine hardly sounds extreme. A bit too focussed on calorie burns and cardio though. Going to be doing the same routine at maintenance when you get to goal weight?
The days I do take a rest day I feel really gross about myself - That's really sad to have such low self-esteem.
It's really hard to keep a calorie deficit without the exercise - Having some days at maintenance isn't going to make a scrap of difference in the long term. Stop thinking day to day.
when i say i feel gross about myself, i mean that i just don't feel right. like my day hasn't been completed and it makes me kind of uncomfortable.
I'd think about how you address those feelings, or you'll really struggle in the future.
What happens if you get an injury and can't exercise for a week or a month or longer?0 -
sychun1304 wrote: »But I'm starting to wonder, is there a benefit, weight loss wise, to taking rest days? - not for fat loss. For health and exercise performance, maybe (depending on your routine and your capabilities). But your routine hardly sounds extreme. A bit too focussed on calorie burns and cardio though. Going to be doing the same routine at maintenance when you get to goal weight?
The days I do take a rest day I feel really gross about myself - That's really sad to have such low self-esteem.
It's really hard to keep a calorie deficit without the exercise - Having some days at maintenance isn't going to make a scrap of difference in the long term. Stop thinking day to day.
when i say i feel gross about myself, i mean that i just don't feel right. like my day hasn't been completed and it makes me kind of uncomfortable.
It happens.
But honestly- get used to it.
Working out ever day of the week and then feeling really bad about yourself for taking a day off isn't healthy- you have to learn to strike a balance. there is NOTHING wrong with taking a day off.
If you are really unhappy and icky feeling- go for a walk- do 10 push ups- clean the yard up- usually that's enough to get your blood flowing and feel better about what what's going on- it takes some adjusting. when I used to train ALL the time- a day off left me feeling the same way.
now- I workout 5-6 days a week (lift 3- dance 5) and honestly any day off I get is a blessing and I plop my *kitten* on the couch and enjoy it.1
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