How often do you take a rest day?

Your example of a walk after a hard run is a great example. Pumping some blood through those tired muscles helps enormously with recovering.
For cycling I can achieve the same thing after a hard, hilly and long ride by going out for an easy pace, flat and moderate distance ride.

Would say though that my method of general fatigue being the trigger for rest may not be so suitable (or harder to judge) for people new or returning to exercise. Their threshold for training stress turning into general fatigue will be lower.

I don’t take days off but I adjust accordingly. If I’m not feeling it I’ll take it easy on the daily workout. When I’ve injured myself I seize all out jogs elliptical or rowing. I revert to walking but will extend it to an hr walk at a brisk pace. I’ve had instances where it’s over a week before I go back to normal. Wednesday’s is my intense day of 4-6 mile faster or longer jog either out or treadmill it all depends on how I’m feeling. Sundays is my easy day. Just a quick 30 min jog. I use to not do workout on Sundays but felt I needed a little something to satisfy the workout worm.

Right now I'm doing three all-over strength training sessions per week (MWF) plus some running/rowing/swimming for cardio. Sometimes I do the cardio after the strength stuff. Sometimes I do it on a different day. On average, I usually have 2-3 days of rest per week. Tuesday is a firm rest day, and Saturday is a rest day that sometimes becomes an active rest day. Sunday is up for grabs. Sometimes it turns into a bike ride. Other times I move my Monday strength workout up a day. It all depends. The only definite thing for me is three good strength workouts per week. The rest I just mix in according to mood and how my body feels. It won't win me any competitions, but I do see regular progress, and having a laid back schedule keeps me enjoying myself enough to keep at it. I also have a pretty high NEAT even on rest days, so it's rare that I'm not moving in some way even during my rest days.

I exercise 7 days a week unless something prevents me. 4 days are resistance training for up to 90 mins (split between upper and lower body), 1 day is 45 mins boxing pad work, 1 day is 45 mins conditioning/form/mobility as needed and the final day is often a mix of boxing heavy bag for CV plus mobility work, but might just be mobility if I'm feeling tired. I do have planned deloads every 6 weeks but that does not involve taking time off; usually just reducing volume.

Two rest days per week. I am the final peak weeks training for an ultra and running about 50-60 miles a week in the other 5 days. Even when I’m not running this much mileage, I still have 2 full rest days per week (but my training would include more than just running).

My training plans are heavily focused on recovery. I don’t make fitness improvements and get burned out if I don’t allow myself the down time regularly. I have done 6 day weeks in the past (with one full rest day) and my workouts in days 4-6 weren’t as productive as they could have been. Adding another rest day has fixed that.

I do “active recovery” as part of my plans though. Not doing active recovery after a long run ends up extending the time it takes for me to recover from a long run. The day after my long run is a very easy recovery run-usually jog-sometimes walk-sometimes bike ride. The day after that is a full rest day. The day after my mid-week long run is similar with the easy run/jog/walk/bike (but as my mid-week long run is only 10-12 miles, I don’t need quite as much recovery as after 20+).

I think this is individual and also probably dependent on what people do, the intensity and duration of what they are doing, age, fitness level and overall life situation and stresses as well. All-in (including prep/setup/post run cooldown/stretching/yoga/etc), I’m spending 12-15 hours a week on workouts right now. That’s more than enough for me.

I only rest when injured or sick...and usually just a modified routine plus extra rest is enough, not just all day in bed.

I take two rest days per week.

@ToffeeApple71 I get what you're saying about worrying that every day might become a rest day. It can be hard to judge when to push through a mood and when to give in to it.

My way of dealing with that is to stay focused on my three weight-training days MWF. Those are nonnegotiable for me. I may shift between Sunday and Monday for one workout, but that's it. If I'm in a low mood, my workout might not be great but at least I WENT and maintained the habit I'm trying to build. So, the three weight days give me some structure and some practice pushing through my moods. The cardio "extras" are where I let myself be random and free. I do it that way because the strength is more important to me, but that's just my bottom line. Yours might be different. All this to say, figure out your bottom line and commit to some sort of habit on that. Focus on maintaining that habit even when you don't feel like it. Then let the rest be play and give yourself permission to follow your moods there.

So, if you don't want to go to the gym, go anyway, do your weight circuit (or whatever is your priority) and then, if your mood isn't better...go home and don't feel bad about it. You kept your promise to yourself, and you got a better workout than you would have sitting on the couch.

If you keep showing up, good things will happen. But the key to showing up consistently is defining your commitment as something you can live with. Personally, I can't commit to seven days a week. Nor I can I always force myself to do the same activity. So, I don't try. In addition to the weights (which I also vary somewhat), I do everything from shoot baskets to swimming to walking in random neighborhoods just for fun. Lately I've been playing around with C25K, but I don't follow it exactly because I just do it whenever I feel like it. But I'm still getting better each time. So it all works out. At the end of the day, my goal is to feel good and be able to enjoy my life. I'm not training for anything specific, so I don't have to workout like I am.

OK, I've now gone on way longer than I meant to, but hopefully something in there will help you figure out the balance you need. Good luck!!

I usually walk and/or do yoga on my rest days.