The Importance of Rest Days

Good morning everyone, how’s your Sunday going? 🙂

My oatmeal is baking as I type, and boy does it smell delicious! It’s The Oatmeal Artist’s recipe!

Anyway, today’s post topic is something that I am a huge advocate of:  REST DAYS.

Many fitness junkies find the idea of taking a day off as a no-no, meant to make us fall off track and regain all those little things we were trying to get rid of. This is actually really bad. Whatever your reason for working out, we all need a day off and here’s why:

Rest days are actually implemented in many professional training plans, even Olympic athletes, in order to allow the body time to recuperate. As we work out, we place greater strain on our muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones and joints. Our immune system is activated when there are muscle tears or joint strains, but if the body doesn’t come out of continual practice, this system doesn’t have the time to catch up and start patching everything back up. If you’re trying to build muscle, you should take a day off from lifting the same area so the body has time to repair the muscles you’re working. If you decide to not have a rest day, you run a greater risk of injury. Nobody wants that!

Rest days depend on what type of athlete you are. Mind and body athletes (Pilates and yoga) may want to take a day off altogether, whereas bodybuilders may only want to take a day off of lifting, but still do a little cardio. It also depends on your level of fitness. If you’re just starting out in the fitness world, your rest day should be a real rest day with no activity at all. A more seasoned athlete may have a higher tolerance for continuing to do some light cardio activity during a rest day.

Personally, my rest days are always on Sundays. I usually don’t do any activity, but if anything, I like to take a light walk after dinner! However, during the school year I usually take 2 days off because I am dancing and working out on top of it. Whew!

Bottom line: Give your body love and attention and know that every single athlete in the history of time does this too. Take your day of rest to reflect on how far you’ve already come and be grateful for your body, willpower, and dedication. 🙂

Enjoy your RESTFUL Sunday! XOXO

Question of the Day:
Do you ever take days off? If so, what’s your usual rest day?