If you love exercising daily be it lifting heavy in the gym, going for long runs, etc, you might hate to take a rest on a particular day as you end up skipping your favorite thing. But if hear that the rest day/s are very beneficial for you and actually help you perform even better, you will feel happy. Let’s see how actually rest day is very important for exercise.
What is a rest day?
In simple words, you take a break from your workout routine to refresh your mind and body. So it can be 1 day ..2 days or more depending on your schedule and your routine.
Generally, it’s 1-2 day/s where you don’t train but it can be more in some cases. Like if you are working out for some time now, be it 6 months or 1 year without a long break then you can even take a rest for 1 week as well.
Can you work out without taking any rest days?
Rest days are very important in any workout schedule. So if you take a rest and continue with your daily workouts below things are most likely to happen over time.
-Your body and muscle parts will be tired as they didn’t get proper time for recovery.
-You might end up with some injury.
-You will be tired mentally as well.
So the answer to the main question will be ‘ideally you should not workout without taking any rest day’. You should take rest day/s takes to maximize your performance and give your body proper time to recover.
So keep aside that fire of working out daily and make sure you take rest after some days.
Now let’s look at the importance of rest days and why you need rest days
Muscle recovery
After tiring workout days, your muscle is tired of those heavyweights or those hard sprints. A break helps them to recover and help them become even stronger.
Reduces injury risk
If you don’t give proper time to recover and keep on training without a break you are more likely to injure your body/muscle. Overtraining makes your muscles more prone to injuries.
Performance enhancement
When you give proper rest to your body(muscles), it results in improved performance over time and the body is not fatigued and it’s ready to go for the next challenge.
Prevents muscle exhaustion
If you keep on exercising each day without any rest, your muscles get exhausted and you won’t be able to perform the same as your previous days and this fatigue will keep on increasing if no rest is taken. So it’s important to have a rest day to prevent your muscles from exhaustion.
Caution for a rest day
If you are serious about your goal, be it weight loss or muscle building, then make sure you don’t treat days as a chance to eat anything. Follow your diet plan as per normal days. On rest days your muscles are in recovery mode and they will still require a good diet. So losing track of that diet on a rest day can deviate you from your goals and this is the most common mistake people do.
Reasons for which you should be taking an additional day off
Apart from having a fixed rest day you can also take a rest day if your body is giving the below signs. You might feel guilty about losing out on that great workout session but eventually, it helps you prevent unwanted injuries. According to an article in acefitness , overcommitting and overtraining can backfire on you. So you should always be careful and make sure you take rest as and when your body demands it.
Additionally, you can check our article on workout mistakes to avoid.
Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for a qualified medical opinion.
Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information.
