Some of you may say, “Rest days?! Those are my favorite training days!”. Others may say things like, “I can’t take a rest day. I’ll gain weight.” “I don’t want to miss my favorite class.” “I don’t feel awake if I don’t work out.” “If I work out more, I’ll get better, stronger, or lose more weight.”. Cut it out, will ya?!I’m here to tell you that is NAHT true. Rest days are critical to athletic performance for a ton of different reasons. Some are physiological and some are psychological. Rest is necessary so that the muscles can repair, rebuild and strengthen. No rest = no super strength, no Michelle Obama arms, and definitely no JLO glutes(wowza!).
What happens to your body during recovery?
Adding recovery time into your training program is important because this is the time that your body adapts to the stress of exercise and the real effects of training take place. Recovery also allows the body to replenish energy stores and repair damaged tissues (yes...this does happen). Exercise or any other physical work causes changes in the body such as muscle tissue breakdown and the depletion of energy stores (muscle glycogen) as well as fluid loss.
As much as I love seeing my clients/people who take my classes every day, I care enough about you to tell you to take a day off a week (at least!) to recover! Recovery time allows these stores to replenish and allows your tissues, ligaments and joints to repair. Without time to repair and replenish, the body will continue to break down from intensive exercise. When this happens, you have successfully hit the overtraining wall face first, and will eventually injure yourself (if you haven’t already). An injury will set back all of the progress you've worked so hard for, and you'll have to start from scratch- again. Some signs of overtraining include a feeling of general staleness, depression, overtired, lack of motivation, dehydration, decreased performance, cranky pants, injury, and the list goes on. If you want more info on overtraining, just Google it.
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| You don’t want to be THAT guy(or girl). Trust me! Does this look fun? NAHT at all. |
Two types of recovery.
There are two categories of recovery. There is short-term recovery from an intense training session or class, and there is long-term recovery which needs to be built into a year-round training program. Both are important for optimal performance depending on how serious you are about your training regimen. Let’s take a closer look at the two...
Short-term recovery
A.K.A. active recovery, is something low intensity that you would do immediately following intense exercise. This recovery includes both the cool-down phase immediately after a hard training session/class, as well as during the days following the workout.
Another major focus of recovery immediately following exercise has to do with replenishing energy stores and fluids lost during exercise. This could be a protein shake within 30 minutes after your workout on your way home. Then as soon as you get home be sure to eat real food (veggies, meat, some fruits & fats), and drink plenty of water throughout the day to stay hydrated.
Short-term recovery is the time for soft tissue work (foam rolling), mobility drills, low intensity yoga, etc. to help move around that lactic acid build up that sits in your muscles after your workout and causes muscle soreness. We all know how that feels, especially when you walk around like a pony or have to slide down the wall to lower yourself onto the toilet. You know you’ve done it!
And finally....SLEEP! That’s right. Getting enough sleep is an important part of your recovery. Especially if you are going hard with training and taking classes throughout the week. So all you night owls, call it a night earlier than usual and get some sleep!
Long-term recovery
This recovery is mostly important for the serious athlete who trains hard daily, is training for an event, or working towards specific weight lifting goals. Most well-designed training schedules will include recovery days and/or weeks that are built into an annual training program. This is also the reason athletes and coaches change their training program throughout the year adding cross training, modifying workout types, and making changes in intensity, time, distance, volume, etc.
There are two categories of recovery. There is short-term recovery from an intense training session or class, and there is long-term recovery which needs to be built into a year-round training program. Both are important for optimal performance depending on how serious you are about your training regimen. Let’s take a closer look at the two...
Short-term recovery
A.K.A. active recovery, is something low intensity that you would do immediately following intense exercise. This recovery includes both the cool-down phase immediately after a hard training session/class, as well as during the days following the workout.
Another major focus of recovery immediately following exercise has to do with replenishing energy stores and fluids lost during exercise. This could be a protein shake within 30 minutes after your workout on your way home. Then as soon as you get home be sure to eat real food (veggies, meat, some fruits & fats), and drink plenty of water throughout the day to stay hydrated.
Short-term recovery is the time for soft tissue work (foam rolling), mobility drills, low intensity yoga, etc. to help move around that lactic acid build up that sits in your muscles after your workout and causes muscle soreness. We all know how that feels, especially when you walk around like a pony or have to slide down the wall to lower yourself onto the toilet. You know you’ve done it!
And finally....SLEEP! That’s right. Getting enough sleep is an important part of your recovery. Especially if you are going hard with training and taking classes throughout the week. So all you night owls, call it a night earlier than usual and get some sleep!
Long-term recovery
This recovery is mostly important for the serious athlete who trains hard daily, is training for an event, or working towards specific weight lifting goals. Most well-designed training schedules will include recovery days and/or weeks that are built into an annual training program. This is also the reason athletes and coaches change their training program throughout the year adding cross training, modifying workout types, and making changes in intensity, time, distance, volume, etc.
Self Myofascial Release (SMR) a.k.a foam rolling the calves
When should you take a rest day?
Listen to your body. If you are in a bad mood, not feeling motivated, having crappy training sessions, feeling like you’re getting sick or experiencing any other symptoms of overtraining, it’s time for a rest day. Maybe even two! Depending on how serious you take your training a rest day can consist of:
- Doing nothing at all.
- Working on your mobility/flexibility
Convinced?
You better be! If not, you can't say you weren't warned when you start to fall apart. If you're not resting enough, please do it starting today. Incorporate it into your schedule like I do. Understand, in order to achieve any goals you need to plan ahead. Set training days/classes, and rest days in your schedule so you will be sure to get it done.
Thank you all so much for reading! Today is my rest day so I'm off to work on my mobility so I can crush tomorrows workout. ;)
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