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Why exercise rest days are important

We have talked before about the benefits of doing exercise for your body and mind, but there is something that you should know: We also need rest days. Some people could think that the more they exercise, the faster they achieve their goals. However, more is not always better. In fact, rest days are an important part of your training. Why? Find it out in this post!

What is a rest day and why is it important?

As its own name says, a rest day is a day off from your regular training routine to allow your body and mind to recover and repair. Several studies have shown that recovery and rest between workouts are really necessary for our body to adapt and recuperate. By doing this you are able to consolidate the training you have been doing. Let’s summarize the main advantages of rest days.

–       Recovery

Recovery is one of the most important benefits of rest days. To grow and build muscle and get stronger you need to give your muscles and tissues time to recover. Also, when you are training your body breaks down glycogen into glucose for energy. Rest days help replenish energy stores and improve your performance on your next training. It is simple: after a workout, your body will have consumed a lot of resources of your body. By resting, you help to replenish it.

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–       Avoid overtraining

If you keep training and pushing your body hard and often without a break, you can overtrain and are likely to end up with muscle fatigue and risk of injuries. As we said, when our body does not have enough glycogen levels, our muscles can be fatigued and sore. By getting rest we are able to refill our glycogen stores.

Besides, if your body is overworked and exhausted can end up with joint pain, emotional fatigue, overuse injuries, or stress fractures. For sure that will force you to take more rest days than you would like.

–       Support healthy sleep

While doing exercise help you have better sleep, working out without proper rest could lead to sleep disorders. It is hard to relax and let the tension go when your stress hormones are out of balance. Something that happens when you are overtraining. If our energy-boosting hormones like cortisol and adrenaline are overproduced because of physical activity, it will be difficult to have quality sleep. By resting your hormones will return to a balanced state. As you know, sleep is really important for maintaining good health on many other levels.

What to do on rest days?

A rest day does not necessarily mean to lie down on the couch eating chocolate and watching Netflix. Think of your rest day as part of your workout routine. If you just need to rest, have extra sleep, or spend time on other hobbies you are ok, but if you feel that you need some activity you could stay active on a rest day by doing low-impact workout such as walking in nature, doing yoga, swimming, stretching, or even cycling.  

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When should I take a rest day?

It is hard to schedule how many rest days a person needs. At least one full rest day each week is advisable. However, there will be people who will need two or three. It will depend on the type of workouts you are doing. The best thing to understand the optimal number of rest days you should take is paying attention to your own body. If you notice sore muscles, fatigue, sleeping issues, reduced performance, emotional changes, or pain, it is time to take a break.

We could say that taking a rest day is as important as the exercise itself, so be aware you can overtrain. More training does not necessarily mean faster results, but sometimes it can slow down your progress. So do not overtrain and you will avoid fatigue, weight gain, sleep disorders and you will have the energy to improve your performance and achieve your fitness goals. 

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