We’re always told to stay active and get regular exercise. But when your training for a competition or feeling extra motivated, more isn’t always better.
rest days are just as important as exercise. In fact, a successful fitness regimen isn’t complete without rest days.
Taking regular breaks allow your body recover and repair. It’s critical part of the process, regardless of your fitness level or sport. Otherwise skipping rest days can lead to overtraining and burnout.
Benefits
- Allow time for recovery
Contrary to popular belief , a rest day isn’t about being lazy on the couch . It’s during this time that the beneficial effects of exercise take place. Specifically, rest is essential for muscle growth.
Exercise create microscopic tears in your muscle tissue. But during rest , cells called fibroblast repair it. This helps the tissue heal and grow, resulting in stronger muscles.
Also, your muscle store carbohydrates in the form of glycogen. During exercise, your body breaks down glycogen to fuel your workout. Rest gives your body time to replenish these energy stores before your next workout.
2. Prevents muscle fatigue
Rest is necessary for avoiding exercise induced fatigue. Remember, exercise depletes your muscle glycogen levels. If these stores aren’t replaced, you’ll experience muscle fatigue and soreness.
Plus, your muscle need glycogen to function, even when you’re nt working out. By getting adequate rest, you’ll prevent fatigue by letting your glycogen stores fill up.
3. Reduces risk of injury.
Regular rest is essential for staying safe during exercise. When your body is overworked, you’ll be more likely to fall out of form, drop a weight , or take a wrong step.
Overtraining also expose your muscle to repetitive stress and strain. This increases the risk of overuse injuries like tendonitis, forcing your to stop your workout or activity from more injury. These type of injury can side line your for a long period of time and is very painful.
4. Improves perfomance
When you don’t get enough rest, it can be hard to perform at a high level.
Muscle fatigue can cause your workout to slow down, low motivation, lack of strength. During this time your performance will suffer.
Rest has the opposite effect. It increases energy and prevent fatigue, which prepares your body for consistency during workouts.
When you have adequate rest muscle movement and mind clarity are much better and your performance gains are noted. Soreness is reduced and better body mechanics are evident.
5. How to do rest days correctly
The ideal rest day looks different for everyone. It depends on your intensity and frequency of your workouts and sport, along with your lifestyle .
General note for rest to every 3 days take a day off.
