Rest days, what are they and how do they fit into your training week?
By Brooke Fletcher
You may hear the phrase ‘rest day’ get thrown around a fair bit and yet the current physical activity guidelines recommend you do some form of exercise most days of the week.
This may seem quite contradictory? So, when do you fit the ‘rest days’ in?
Rest days don’t always mean lay around watching T.V or sitting on the beach relaxing. By all means a day like this every now and then is ok, but not all rest days need to be like this.
What does a rest day look like? This will depend on the type of training you are doing or the rest your body requires.
If you are just completing light aerobic exercise as your routine, more than likely you will not require specific rest days. If you include a regular rest day in your training cycle you should be aiming to have a more active rest day. This may include a lighter intensity session for example a gentle walk, Pilates, a swim or rotating the body part you are working for strength training.
If you feel like the body is fighting to keep up with the demand you are placing on it, if you aren’t feeling well or feel like you are pushing your body in other aspects either your health, emotionally or mentally you may need to give yourself more of a rest. This may include a gentle yoga class, stretching or complete rest day.
There are many benefits to including rest days in your training. These include:
- Allowing time for the muscles to recover. When you are training particularly strength, there are microscopic tears created in the muscle. This rest period allows these muscles to repair and grow in turn become stronger.
- When you exercise muscles utilise glucose as energy. Once exercise is completed the muscles have to replenish these stores with the rest period allowing time to do so. This prevents muscle fatigue as all the stores are replenished before commencing further exercise.
- Reduces the risk of injury. When you are fatigued you are more likely to make errors. This may include technique errors, dropping weights or losing balance in certain exercises. When you are overtraining the body experiences more repetitive stress and strain. This can lead to overuse injuries which will mean more time off than that one rest day you had planned.
- Improves overall performance. If you think about day to day life in general, if you don’t get enough rest it can be hard to function let alone challenge or push yourself. If you train after getting ample rest you will have more energy and be able to perform better and to a higher ability.
- Benefits sleep. When you are constantly training there is an increase in certain hormone production including adrenaline and cortisol which may make sleep challenging with these hormones elevated. When you rest it allows these hormone levels to return to normal hence allowing better quality sleep.
So, what happens if you don’t take rest days and listen to your body? If you aren’t giving yourself these rest days the body doesn’t have enough time to recover which can lead to overtraining. Overtraining can be dangerous and places the body in a position to be more susceptible to injury. If you continually train and just to turn up to your sessions just to complete them but don’t feel like you’re giving your best shot due to not having the energy you may reach a training plateau.
If you’re unsure how to incorporate rest days, what they should look like or how to structure the rest of your training week around these days, get in touch with one of our Exercise Physiologists today for your complimentary consultation.