Should I take a day off? Or do what I want

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TiffCK728
TiffCK728 Posts: 11 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
So, I think I may be getting addicted to exercise. I really enjoy it, I love how much stronger I’m getting, how my endurance is increasing. I have exercised every day last week, and while sometimes they are short if I am running low on time, they are intense-at least for a good portion of it. Sometimes I go to the gym in the morning but I exercise again after work at home. Anyway, I’m just thinking about taking tomorrow off. Am I going too hard? Am I sabotaging myself? I am new to weight lifting and high intensity workouts. But now it’s all I want to do when I have downtime. Is that okay? Right now I’m weak because I’ve really worked my muscles but can I push through it? I honestly have a very hard time not exercising now. Even if I skip my class tomorrow I’ll probably do my own workout at home.

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  • ceolyn
    ceolyn Posts: 31 Member
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    Rest days are important. They give your muscles a chance to recover and rebuild, since you build muscle by literally making tiny tears that have to knit back together.

    I usually go for a long walk on my rest days, just to keep my body moving (I find it helps with sore legs), do a lot of gentle stretching, and if I'm feeling really wild I'll take a nice long bath.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    Walking is great!
  • TiffCK728
    TiffCK728 Posts: 11 Member
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    Yesterday I was having trouble with snatches. My arms wouldn’t hold a lighter weight than I’m used to so I figured I’m over working them. I had to decrease the weight on them a lot. Pretty much that’s the reason...I also had more trouble in Pilates than usual, instead of being able to modify for the hardest workout I had to take easier routes. I try to do full body workouts everyday instead of leg day, arm day etc. Usually when I workout twice a day one workout is more weight lifting or body weight exercises, the other will be cardio (treadmill or elliptical) with burpees thrown in or something.
  • briscogun
    briscogun Posts: 1,135 Member
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    If you're going to workout every day then you need to mix it up so you aren't overworking any one muscle group. As mentioned above, the recovery portion after any workout is where you make your gains. So if you are constantly tearing down the same muscle group every day you will never see gains in muscle tone, strength, etc.

    For example, you could do:

    Mon- Upper Body Weights
    Tue- Cardio (running, swimming, biking, etc)
    Wed- Lower Body Weights
    Thurs- Cardio/Core Work
    Fri- Upper Body Weights
    Sat- Lower Body Weights
    Sun- Rest/Stretching

    Cross training and doing other activities besides just weight training/workouts can really help with gains. Just keep mixing it up so you don't so the same thing two days in a row to give your body time to recover for a good 48 hours in any one area. Good luck!
  • lamm84416
    lamm84416 Posts: 709 Member
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    Taking rest days aren't absolutely necessary, however, what others have said is true. You need to mix things up a bit and not work the same muscle groups in consecutive workouts. I walk every day but vary the speed at which I walk - some days I walk at a 3.8 mph pace and others I walk at a 3.0 mph (or slower depending on how I feel and how sore I am) pace but still go for 30 minutes. Then I also do full body strength workouts 3 times a week with at least 48 hours between each session. I vary the exercise I do at each work out to target different parts of the muscle and mix machines with free weights. Sometimes I just do body weight exercises like planks, wall sits, pushups, squats, etc. which can be done at home.
  • gvizzle74
    gvizzle74 Posts: 123 Member
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    Tear muscle when you workout.

    Feed muscle when you eat.

    Build muscle when you rest.
  • meritage4
    meritage4 Posts: 1,441 Member
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    a day off could be a long walk or a gentle yoga class. A day off is good for the body. As for being addicted-perhaps do something with friends on your "rest" day.
  • DebLaBounty
    DebLaBounty Posts: 1,172 Member
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    I usually do running every other day to get in my cardio, and have done weightlifting or a circuit training class on the other days. I usually end up taking a complete rest day on the weekend, mostly because I need the break and I have a ton of social activities and errands to do. I have managed to avoid fatigue and injuries. Instead of having to backtrack on progress, I've been able to manage improvement most days.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
    edited February 2018
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    stanmann571 wrote: »
    IF you're not following a program, you're probably going to run into trouble.

    IF you want to train every day, pick a program that's designed around that. Don't throw together 2-3 programs and hope that it will work.

    Pretty much ^^^

    I do some form of exercise pretty much 7 days per week...I follow a lifting program that is designed for 2-3 days per week...you shouldn't be working the same muscles or groups of muscles everyday...it is very sub optimal.

    My cardio is variable...I usually only have 1 interval session that is higher intensity...most of my rides are conversational pace at variable mileage. I have one rest/recovery day per week, but I sill go take the dog for a walk and usually do some yoga and often will go do some other recreational activity like rock climbing or something...

    I think the bigger issue with "doing too much" is that it can ultimately be unsustainable...people are all gung ho in the beginning, and then they burn out. You just need to determine what is sustainable for you and also allow for flexibility.
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,978 Member
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    I exercise almost everyday - lifting and/or cardio - but when I feel tired, I just take a day off to rest and always feel better the next day.


  • TiffCK728
    TiffCK728 Posts: 11 Member
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    Thanks you all...this was all very helpful. I do cross training mon wed and Friday. This week it makes sense for me to add Thursday’s, I think I’ll trade Fri for Thurs. Do you think I should incorporate weight lifting on CrossFit days, or cardio? how do you think this looks...

    Mon Crosstraining and weight lifting arms
    Tues Cardio (probably half mile then 20 burpees x3...maybe a few other body weight exercises)
    Wed crosstraining and weightlifting legs
    Thurs Crosstraining and arms
    Friday off...walk or go to park or something
    Sat Crosstraining and legs
    Sunday lighter cardio/ab work

    Yeah I have kind of been doing what Stan said and throwing together a bunch of programs. I’m doing my CrossFit classes, insanity dvds sometimes, cardio, calisthenics, sometimes take yoga and Pilates classes... I honestly would have been more active before, I recently was a gymnastics instructor and demonstrated roundoff back handspring backtucks so I wasn’t a stranger to activity...but I was doing a sport for fun, (and instructive purposes) not exercising for the sake of it. Plus Im nearing 30...and more prone to injury doing that kind of thing. So I decided calisthenics as a sport is a better bet for me now at my age...but I’m lacking the strength to do the fun stuff as of now. That’s my goal really; while I’m having fun doing CrossFit and noticing myself getting stronger and more endurance, I’m impatient to do the fun stuff. I can’t do a pull up but I want to do muscle ups. I want to get strong fast so I can play more this summer! Plus, as I said, I’m just enjoying working out. Not long ago I didn’t have the freedom to spend time in classes or at the gym but now I do...and I plan to continue until I have my own home gym with all I need! Sorry so long...I really appreciate everyone’s patience and advice. I really want to do this right, I’ve become passionate about it.

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