What Counts As a “rest Day” (and How Often Do You Need One)

Rest days are an important part of any workout because they help you conserve energy for future training days. But what exactly counts as rest – should you avoid any exercise? I will reveal the purpose of these days and answer your questions about what counts and what doesn’t.

What is the purpose of rest days?

People say a lot of things about rest days that aren’t actually true, so I wanted to take a moment to separate the myths from the facts.

Rest days actually do the following:

• They will balance your workload . Your body can handle three hard workouts a week if you balance it out by giving it four days of rest. Please note that the number and type of rest days depends on how hard the working days are . If you’ve done six days of relatively easy training, one rest day per week should be sufficient.

• They will help you fit exercise into your schedule . Most people can’t go to the gym every day just because we have other things to do in life. A three-day workout program (yes, with four days off) is much easier for most of us to stick to than a six-day one.

• They take the guesswork out of “easy” days . If your program requires you to alternate between hard and easy days, you may find that you work too hard on the easy days. But if it’s a full rest day, you simply don’t come to the gym and now you know for sure that you’re not doing too much.

Now let’s talk about some things that rest days are often said to do, but actually don’t:

• They do not prevent injury . Balancing your overall workload can help prevent injury, but as we’ve discussed, rest days are one tool that can help with that balance. There are ways to exercise safely without rest days.

• They are not needed for muscle growth . It’s sometimes said that your muscles “repair” or “grow” when you rest, but keep in mind that if you do a one-hour workout every day, your muscles have 23 hours to rest before the next one.

• They do not allow full recovery . It will take several days to weeks for the body to fully recover from a workout. We don’t wait until we’re fully recovered every time, otherwise we’ll never be able to stick to a consistent schedule and never make progress in our workouts. Your muscles (and other body systems) can work even if they haven’t fully recovered—within reason, of course.

When should I take rest days?

It depends on your training program. Any good workout program, whether you get it from an experienced trainer or download it from the Internet , should be designed with a good work-rest balance in mind.

If you create your own daily routine, here are some guidelines to help you know where to spend your rest days. These are not ironclad laws, and many good programs will operate differently . But here are some helpful rules of thumb to get you started:

• In a strength training program, each muscle group should have a rest day after 1-2 days of work. This could mean a full-body strength program in which you train on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, or a split in which you train your upper body on Monday and Thursday, your lower body on Tuesday and Friday, and rest on Wednesday and the weekend.

• In a running or cardio program, beginners should be given a rest day after 1-2 consecutive days of training. This allows for a Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule, which is very popular among newbies.

• For more experienced people, an easy day can replace a rest day. For example, a runner might run five days a week, but only two of them are hard workouts, and the other two are easy runs.

• It’s possible to do two workouts over several days in a row , as long as your overall work-rest balance remains the same. For example, if you can’t train on Wednesday and have to run on Monday, Thursday and Friday, that’s okay because you still have four days of rest that week.

First of all, if you are writing or modifying a program for yourself, listen to your body . It’s not wise to jump into a five-days-a-week exercise plan when you usually don’t exercise at all. It’s much better to start with three days, see how it goes, and then consider adding additional workouts and adjusting their intensity.

What should happen on a day off?

By keeping the goals of rest days in mind, you need to make sure that your rest day achieves what it is intended to do.

In a strength training program, rest days should give you a break from serious strength training. This doesn’t mean you need to sit on the couch all day, but it does mean you probably shouldn’t squat again if you only squatted yesterday.

On a rest day, you can maintain your baseline activity level. If you usually take 8,000 steps, you can still take 8,000 steps. If you usually walk your dog, you can still walk your dog. If you have a job where you’re on your feet all day or moving equipment, you can still go to work and get your job done. You don’t have to literally rest, you just need to maintain your activity level.

Can I do strength training when I’m taking a break from cardio and vice versa?

When you get used to it, yes. Strength training and cardio are different enough that they don’t put the same amount of stress on your body. In fact, lifters who do cardio may find that cardio helps their muscles recover. And runners who add a little strength training may find that the benefits outweigh the lost rest time.

However, beginners should approach this with caution. If you’re training for 5Ks on the couch and lead a literally sedentary life, give yourself a few weeks to get used to your new schedule before adding entry-level strength training.

However, remember to listen to your body. If you’re a relatively active person and have just started strength training, adding in a little light jogging may not bother you at all. Just pay attention to how it happens and make adjustments if necessary.

Think about “making the hard days hard and the easy days easy.”

Here’s another hard rule: Some trainers advise combining two workouts on a “heavy” day to free up time for rest on another day. This might mean going for a run and strength training on Tuesday so that you have a real rest day on Wednesday. If you’ve increased your training volume and feel like you need a rest day, try this approach and see if you feel better about it.

Can I go for a walk on rest days?

Yes, because walking is a fairly easy exercise that is unlikely to tire you out too much for your upcoming workouts. If you don’t usually walk much, start with a short walk and see what happens. If you usually walk a lot, you can walk as much as you like on your rest days.

Can I do yoga on rest days?

Yes, as long as you keep it relatively easy compared to harder workouts. A rest day is a good time to do some light flexibility work, some light strength work, and just to get your body moving a little. If you feel like your yoga practice is helping, great.

The only time I would recommend not doing yoga on a day off is if your idea of ​​yoga is a really hard power yoga class or if it involves extreme levels of stretching. In this case, you should classify it as a hard workout and make sure that you also take some rest from these hard workouts.

Can I do “active recovery” on rest days?

Depends what that means to you, but it’s possible! Mobility work, foam rolling, gentle yoga, walking, and gentle swimming can all be considered “active recovery.” Just remember that active recovery is not determined by what you do, but by how hard your body takes it. If you are a swimmer and find a few easy laps relaxing, then yes, this can be a recovery tool. But if you’re new to swimming and find yourself floundering in the water, out of breath, it’s not a restorative activity. Use a little common sense and you can figure it out.

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