REST DAYS
Do you have them?
Do you understand the benefits of them for muscle growth? Why do we want muscle growth?
- improve body composition (reduce fat mass, increase muscle tone if needed), this is not just aesthetic but a health REQUIREMENT.
- improve metabolism
- increase strength for life and ageing (reduce injuries, keep working, keep living active life)
- reduce muscle wastage, which happens with age
Why do we need rest days?
This is where muscle grows. We stress the muscle in the gym and make tiny tears in muscle fibres, then when we rest, the muscles repair and grow.
*** They will only grow with enough protein in your diet***
If we don’t rest, we put the body into a stressed state, and training in a stressed state actually breaks down muscle and stores fat. Which is the very opposite of the goal and why I bang on about working OUT days and working IN days.
Not only this, but to get a result in training, whether it be for increased strength or improved body composition, you need to work hard. To work hard, you need the body to be recovered from previous workouts. Otherwise you’re training in the grey zone and not hitting the workouts hard enough to create change mentioned above.
How often should you rest?
It depends. We are all different and require a different amount of training stimulous to grow, and rest to repair. It is also very dependent on your diet, of course, and your daily habits like sleep, stress, hydration etc. It will also highly depend on your training program style.
For me personally, I like to train 2-3 days, then have a rest day to recover before hitting it hard again. 💪 If it’s a week out from my period, this may change to suit my energy and hormones, having more rest days or just lighter sessions.
Does this mean you sit on the couch on rest days?
Farrrrk no! Rest from TRAINING. Training is your hard workout days. The days you’re hitting it hard in the gym, lifting weights, going all out.
So, on your rest days, get out for a walk, a swim, a slow run, do yoga, and do light movement. Just don’t ‘train’.
Your body needs to MOVE DAILY. Some days are go for it days, and some are just movement days.
So, to sum it all up;
- Yes, your rest days are just as important as your training days. Factor them in.
- Rest from training doesn’t mean sitting on the couch
- How often you train will depend on your body and stress state
- How well your body recovers depends on your lifestyle habits like sleep, stress, nutrition, hydration
- Training in an unrecovered state puts your body into stress
- Training in a stressed state reverses results
- We need to move daily!!