Why Rest Days Are Just As Important As Workouts

If you’re frequently exercising, then you’re doing your bit to become a happier, healthier you. Regular physical activity is required for everyone to maintain their health, and it benefits the body in so many ways. The pesky thing about exercise is that it can cause pain! So, you’ve got to look after your muscles if you want to keep going!

Although you’re improving your strength by working out, muscle is actually developed during its repair stage! Every time you exercise, you’re creating these tiny tears in muscle tissue, and rest days are required for your muscles to heal those tears and grow back stronger! As long as you’re allowing your body to recover, you’ll likely find doing the same workout will require less effort in the future. 

Skipping a rest day will do you far more harm than skipping a workout! If you’re working out with sore muscles, you’re working out with weak muscles. Muscle recovery promotes strength and if you don’t give yourself the time to rest and recover you could injure yourself. The time it takes to recover from an injury is much longer than the time your muscles take to naturally repair themselves.

Just like sleep does for our body, rest days provide us with energy and prevent fatigue. Both of which are optimal for consistent and successful workouts. Overtraining can harm your performance, in fact, it can even reduce endurance and negatively impact your agility. So, be just as strict with your rest days as you are with your workout routine. 

It depends on how frequently you exercise, and the intensity and duration of your workouts. Listen to your body! Pain typically lasts 24-72 hours post-workout. If you’re in a lot of pain after the third day then you may have injured yourself, so go get checked out! 

Rest days aren’t an excuse not to move at all! There’s such a thing as active recovery. You can still use your muscles while they heal, just very gently. It’s perfectly fine to go for a walk, practice gentle yoga or stretching, just don’t hit the weights or overexert yourself on a rest day. Don’t perform any exercises that will cause any strain, but depending on how sore you are, it’s okay to lay down. If you’re really feeling the burn, you’ve probably earned it!