REST DAYS. What does your rest day look like?
carlaringuette
Posts: 158 Member
Trying to get rid of the all or nothing thinking. Stuck into thinking I must get a workout in everyday or make up for it with 2 per day on the weekends when I miss one.
I know stinking thinking. Still a work in progress.
I started in October. 57 yrs old
Currently do one class Mon - Thurs
then cardio and weights Fri and Sat and a full body workout on Sunday that the trainer gave me when I joimed.
Classes are HIIT, Spin 2X, Zumba
What should a rest day look like?
I am just starting to focus on the food because I haven't gotten past the first 5 pounds. I've lost 7 and then it bumps back up. It can fluctuate 4 pounds in one day. So I only weigh once a week Clothes are looking better but I know the weight loss happens in the kitchen.
Looking to loose 70 total. 50 would be fantastic by my son's wedding in January.
Those are just side effects it's more about stress relief and getting healthy.
What does your rest day look like?
I know stinking thinking. Still a work in progress.
I started in October. 57 yrs old
Currently do one class Mon - Thurs
then cardio and weights Fri and Sat and a full body workout on Sunday that the trainer gave me when I joimed.
Classes are HIIT, Spin 2X, Zumba
What should a rest day look like?
I am just starting to focus on the food because I haven't gotten past the first 5 pounds. I've lost 7 and then it bumps back up. It can fluctuate 4 pounds in one day. So I only weigh once a week Clothes are looking better but I know the weight loss happens in the kitchen.
Looking to loose 70 total. 50 would be fantastic by my son's wedding in January.
Those are just side effects it's more about stress relief and getting healthy.
What does your rest day look like?
0
Replies
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A rest day to me is actually a rest day. I don't an any intentional exercise during it. The most active I will be is taking care of errands that I need to run. But if I don't have anything to do, vegging out on the couch and watching Netflix is a totally acceptable option.7
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Been struggling with this myself. Would go weeks without rest days. Lately(since the beginning of the year) have been sleeping in a few days a week instead of up super early to the gym every day. I don't have the answer. Weeks on end wasn't good and I felt worthless when I didn't exercise and now I feel worthless for sleeping a few days a week. I actually have a plan focused around cardio, which day I lift and longer run days against a leg day-one day off a week. Never can make it happen.
As far as the rest of the day I agree with Mike. No intentional exercise.
Balance is the word I should have used. Searching for it as well....
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Strength is created in the resting phase. When we workout our bodies we literally micro tear our muscles. The healing of the muscle happens while at rest. If we don’t give our body rest, we never give the muscle a chance to heal and become stronger.
A rest day could consist of light yoga and stretching, taking a walk, if you need to move. Running daily errands, meal prepping, normal movement that gives the body a chance to make itself stronger are all good options. The rest day is important!8 -
My rest days are days with 0 intentional exercise and usually planted on the couch, unless I have errands to run.1
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Oh, and I am 59 and just hit 10 pounds gone, after 3 months of logging + exercise.1
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carlaringuette wrote: »Trying to get rid of the all or nothing thinking. Stuck into thinking I must get a workout in everyday or make up for it with 2 per day on the weekends when I miss one.
I know stinking thinking. Still a work in progress.
I started in October. 57 yrs old
Currently do one class Mon - Thurs
then cardio and weights Fri and Sat and a full body workout on Sunday that the trainer gave me when I joimed.
Classes are HIIT, Spin 2X, Zumba
What should a rest day look like?
I am just starting to focus on the food because I haven't gotten past the first 5 pounds. I've lost 7 and then it bumps back up. It can fluctuate 4 pounds in one day. So I only weigh once a week Clothes are looking better but I know the weight loss happens in the kitchen.
Looking to loose 70 total. 50 would be fantastic by my son's wedding in January.
Those are just side effects it's more about stress relief and getting healthy.
What does your rest day look like?
Depends...I only do what I would define as a "workout" 2-3x per week when I hit the weight room. Most of my exercise is what I would define as recreational activity...riding my bike, swimming, hiking, rock climbing, etc. I do some form of "exercise" pretty much daily most of the time, but it's not some kind of crazy intense "workout"...sometimes I do nothing at all, and that's just fine. I've been really busy this past week at work and having to work OT...I didn't do much in the way of exercise last week due to my schedule.
When I was doing more cycling events and specifically training for those, I took a couple rest days per week to recover from long rides and more intense training on the bike...at most, I would have maybe gone for a walk on those days and that's about it.1 -
I like to do yoga (usually with Adrienne) on YouTube on rest days and just to focus on giving my body a more healing focused activity.
Also, quiet, slow and short distance walks around my neighborhood, breathing deeply and either daydreaming or observing nature.
It's a physical and mental rest. Permission to breathe and just be alive in the moment.2 -
carlaringuette wrote: »Trying to get rid of the all or nothing thinking. Stuck into thinking I must get a workout in everyday or make up for it with 2 per day on the weekends when I miss one.
I know stinking thinking. Still a work in progress.
I started in October. 57 yrs old
Currently do one class Mon - Thurs
then cardio and weights Fri and Sat and a full body workout on Sunday that the trainer gave me when I joimed.
Classes are HIIT, Spin 2X, Zumba
What should a rest day look like?
I am just starting to focus on the food because I haven't gotten past the first 5 pounds. I've lost 7 and then it bumps back up. It can fluctuate 4 pounds in one day. So I only weigh once a week Clothes are looking better but I know the weight loss happens in the kitchen.
Looking to loose 70 total. 50 would be fantastic by my son's wedding in January.
Those are just side effects it's more about stress relief and getting healthy.
What does your rest day look like?
This is so odd to me. Rest is rest. No yoga. No elliptical for "only" an hour. No 10 mile hike. Nothing, no intentional exercise. That is a rest day. It's how a former running coach spelled it out for me and how I've kept it.3 -
On my active rest days I usually get in a moderate walk on a beautiful trail, do Pilates on my Reformer or get in lots of deep stretching. Nothing that raises my heart rate and no intentional exercise/activity.4
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REST DAYS. What does your rest day look like?
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My rest days are generally rest days and generally preceded by a tough workout day including a good running component. I generally have two a week. Age 64 here so things are a little different as you will, God willing, one day realize.1
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My rest days? They involve absolutely no purposeful exercise. How much walking I do will depend on what I'm doing that day (today involved more walking than my typical Sunday), but I don't walk for exercise/fitness. I walk to get from point A to point B or because I want to get outside. The only time I take walking into consideration with regards to what constitutes a rest day for me is if I'm doing way more walking than I typically do (ex. if I'm at a conference). Typically I get one to three rest days a week. I need at least one rest day and I'm currently figuring out if I need two or not.
Someone else mentioned mental rest - that's not a thing I ever get, but that's an entirely different conversation for me. I wish I did, but I really don't.3 -
My one weekly rest day is something that doesn't involve jumping or lifting. I'll still get a brisk walk in.1
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I have a terrible tendency to forget about rest days. But when my body reminds me WITH A VENGEANCE, they ideally involve a lot of sitting quietly in the office or at home, but nipping out every couple of hours for a slow walk of ten or fifteen minutes. My idea is to do enough to unstiffen and warm up the muscles, without any hard work.2
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Housework, gardening, cooking for prep.
A lot of drinking tea and reading while I think about how I should do those things and don't......4 -
I try to stay pretty active and have a busy family schedule like most. I workout consistently as part of my lifestyle. I don’t have a set gym schedule, if I can’t make it I can’t make it and chalk it up as a rest day. Typically for me there is always something that comes up that prevents me from going to the gym at least one day out of the week. If nothing comes up then I workout all 7 days lol. So my rest days consist of no gym/exercise everything else is the same.1
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rest days for me usually consist of playing with my kids (my rest days fall on the weekend so I have more time to literally chase them around and play tag, etc), household chores, grocery shopping, etc. so I get some activity in, some days more than others. usually according to my apple watch I hit my 600 cal goal of "activity" if that helps.1
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My rest day (Saturdays) simply consists of not going the gym to workout. The other 6 days of the week, I go to the gym.1
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Thanks ya'll. Really appreciate seeing how other people "rest". I did workout Saturday and had a nap that afternoon. I think Sunday will be my rest day since that's our church and getting ready for the week day. I will probably do like several of ya'll do and still get a gentle walk or do a Yoga relaxation dvd.
Thanks again....2 -
As @runfiremamarun said, rest is important because that is when the body actually recovers from the stress of exercise. I'm 57 also and at our age unfortunately rest may be more important than when we were a bit younger.
For myself, on rest days I simply don't do any structured exercise. I may lay on the couch. Then again I might work in the yard, or take a slow easy bike ride around the neighborhood with my wife. Like for me, yard work may be physical activity but it's not the running or cycling that I would normally be doing - so those muscles get a break. Some days I might have 5,000 steps and other days 20,000. So for me a rest day is not necessarily sedentary - just not intentional exercise.1 -
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A rest day for me I just do my morning exercise class.
When I'm really going for it I'll add 2 20 minute walks during my workday and then do 30-60 minutes of cardio after I eat dinner at night while watching baseball.
I generally decide its a rest day if I can't walk straight after the morning class.3 -
runfiremamarun wrote: »Strength is created in the resting phase. When we workout our bodies we literally micro tear our muscles. The healing of the muscle happens while at rest. If we don’t give our body rest, we never give the muscle a chance to heal and become stronger.
A rest day could consist of light yoga and stretching, taking a walk, if you need to move. Running daily errands, meal prepping, normal movement that gives the body a chance to make itself stronger are all good options. The rest day is important!
For me this is so true... I did gym on Tuesday and Wednesday and was nearly thinking of joining gym class on Thursday as well, however my body told me to rest so I just made sure that I kept leisurely active and did my 10K steps (dog walking) in a day.
When I came to HIIT class on Friday, I did my best ever session.
I am sure it helped me having a rest x1 -
I.struggle so much with rest days. I'm usually watching videos of what workout I wanna do next ha! But last week I had to go away and had a forced week of rest and came back feeling stronger and more energetic and so well rested. I'm going to actually try to be positive about it and not think of it as skipping gym rather than healing and building muscle1
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My rest day consists of lots of naps, watching pointless YouTube videos, consuming 5,000 to 7,000 calories making up for all the junk food I've deprived myself of for the week, attempting to read a book but losing interest quickly watching adult videos instead, followed by more naps and spending time with my kids.1
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You have great commitment. My question is, where did you get the idea that you must exercise every day? That is a 'false idea" that somehow you thought you should believe. EVERYONE, including the highest level elite athlete, needs rest days. Your body actually makes more progress on rest days than active days. Active days break down muscle and recovery days allow your muscles to rebuild.
My rest day has changed over the past five years and even now can vary based on how I'm feeling. It usually includes at least a couple miles of walking. Some people include a short bike ride or light run. Other days you might just need to completely "veg out."
Ultimately, your food will be more important to weight loss than exercise. I lost 150, following a deficit consistently the whole time. When I started, a 30 min weight workout 2x week and 15 min walking 3-4x week was all I could do. But I still lost weight with a calorie deficit. As I've improved my fitness, my activity level has increased. Now I'm in maintenance for 2.5 years. Currently I swim 2-3x, bike 2-3x, and lift weights on any remaining days, and walk 2-4 miles almost every day. In the winter I did weights 3x because I wasn't biking. I always need 1-2 days during the week for recovery.
Read the sticky posts here on MFP that explain how to weigh your food on a digital food scale, how to log accurately, and how to determine the amount of exercise calories to eat back (usually about half).1 -
Some form of restorative or power yoga (20 minutes) if I feel like I need to move, or a long walk or low key hike, something fun basically. I also like to swim but not power swim, just paddle around and be in the water. I am learning too! However, last friday I didn't feel like doing anything so I didn't! It felt pretty great! So if I feel like doing anything it would be something really low impact and fun but if you feel like vegging out and watching tv I think that's ok too. Something that helps is doing a really quick meditation to check in on your body and see how you're feeling on your rest day.1
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A rest day to me still includes a 1-2 mile walk with the dogs. Nothing strenuous. If I’m really worn out I might just do nothing, but that’s rare. The dogs need to be walked!1
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My rest day this week was 3 hours of weeding the garden. Didn't go to the gym though. Lol
Love my garden. It's been rough to get going this spring due to the torrential rains every weekend. Thankfully this weekend was absolutely gorgeous!0 -
I don't really have any advice about rest days, because I'm not an "all-or-nothing" person. I work out at the gym 3 to 5 days a week, and I'm good with that, although I prefer at least 4 days. My "rest days" are just days that I don't work out. I'm pretty sedentary, so I don't do much other than regular housework and maybe some yard work on those days.
I admire you for being so dedicated at the gym! But I do hope you can find a bit more balance; it's not the end of the world if you miss one day, and you certainly don't have to make it up by doing 2 workouts on another day. But I know it's not easy to change thinking that's been in place for years. My mom has been a perpetual dieter throughout my whole life, and even in my 40s, I'm still working to unlearn things I picked up watching and listening to her as a kid.
Good luck to you as you continue on and start working more on the food side of things. You've been dedicated to working out since October, so you clearly have it in you to be dedicated to tracking and all that stuff, too.1
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