On the Seventh Day: Rest
“You should rest for a week or two” “I recommend you taking some time off.” “I think you need a rest day once a week” If you hear these words from your boss you are elated and packing up your bag as fast as you can. But when you hear these words from your doctor or even your pseudo doctor, the Internet, your trainer or even just your own body it can cause a bit of a panic attack. “Time off? How can I take time off of insert your exercise of choice?” “People will think I am lazy”, “ I will lose everything I worked for.” Being told that you need to rest or just actually a rest day in your training is hard for many to digest.
However, there are quite a few pros to regularly scheduling a rest day in your training schedule. First you avoid the mental burnout from working out all the time. While rest days are great for the body to recoup from your training it also gives your mind a break. Rest gives you the freedom to not worry about that early morning alarm or if you can your trip to the gym in before you meet your friends for Happy Hour.
Overtraining can cause you to hit a weight loss plateau or even worse gain more weight that has nothing to do with your muscle mass. By adding a few days of rest you give your body a chance to rest, recover and rebuild. That rebuilding is key if you want to avoid “overuse” injuries.
Rest days are key when you notice that first twinge of pain, by resting early you prevent more serve injuries that take so much longer to recover from, keeping you out of the action and making coming back that much harder.
If you are forced to rest because of an injury here is some things to think about: 1) even pro athletes have to time off to recover from injuries in some cases whole seasons. 2) If you rest now you will prevent further injury to the injured part of your body making the time you have to take off shorter 3) depending on your level of fitness a short term rest will only slightly decrease your fitness level. Studies have shown that after 2 weeks of inactivity (meaning nada nothing zilch) a person only loses 6% of their V02 max. Which means that if you take two weeks off to rest that slight sprain you will that you will only lose a smidge of your fitness, and because you are no longer in pain, hurt, or over correcting getting back that 6% as well as forward progress towards your goals will be easier.
When planning your next training schedule make sure you add in some rest days not only for your body but your mind as well and if you hear the dreaded words “you need two weeks off to heal” don’t panic all is not lost. You will come back and you will better than you were before.