Rest days:for champs or chumps?
Options
Replies
-
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
-
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.
0 -
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.
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.
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 -
I love exercise endorphins so I get what your saying about it being hard to take a rest day. I have learned the hard way and have dug myself into overtraining and it takes months to get out of. I now take 2-3 days of active rest, which means a light walk outside with the kids. No lifting or strenuous cardio. I also think it depends on the person and how much they can handle.1
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.6K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.7K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 393 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.3K MyFitnessPal Information
- 23 News and Announcements
- 939 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions