Justin! Rest days?

judimac

Mad old Bat with Attitude
It's come up on a thread, and I know rest days are important, could you talk us through it please?
 
Right, okay. Rest and recover is such a MASSIVE part of exercise that I could write a dissertation on it (and many graduates probably have!)

This is how important it is:

In a week, you have 168 hours. On average, a person exercises for just 3-4 of those hours. So in effect you have around 165 hours dedicated to resting and recovery!

As noted before, when using exercise to manipulate your metabolism to burn more calories for the sake of fat loss, its the calories burnt AFTER the exercise (i.e - during RECOVERY) thats important.


However, I don't think there is any need to have a full day off from exercise if you can help it. This is why I typically recommend whats called Active Recovery (AR). If you get sore from running intensely or lifting weights, using the affected muscles in light exercise will help blood flow around the muscle, which will deliver more nutrients to it, thus helping it heal quicker so you can get back to some good hard training!


You must also remember that rest days don't equate to much unless you are still feeding your body well. You don't necessarily need to consume less calories on days that you do not go to the gym (although some professionals will say otherwise).


I feel like I'm babbling a bit now! Is there anything specific you'd like to know about rest days? Like I said its a huge topic so if there's any aspect in particular you are interested in just let me know.
 
I always thought you should take a day off per week. Are you saying that you should exercise every day without having days off?
 
What I say is to listen to your body. ALL of us need to be performing more physical activity, no matter what our goals. Our bodies are very easily capable of moving everyday without excessive fatigue, as long as the intensity levels are kept in check.
Your body will let you know if you've worked it too hard. At times I've gotten a bit over-enthusiastic and trained intensly three days in arow. The next time I went into the gym, I just gazed at the equipment, and thought "Nope, I just can't do it.", and walked back out.

I'm not recommending working at a high intensity every day, but as I said above, instead of sitting down all day for rest, I'm sure that no one here would be too tired to at least go for a 30 minute walk.



I will note that with my clients who are looking for 'extreme' fat loss (I.e - they want to lose half a stone in 5 weeks etc) then their schedule will be similar to as follows:

Monday: Strength (I.e TBT workout)
Tuesday: Active Recovery (at least 60 minutes of activity - gentle exercise, gardening, shopping etc)
Wednesday: Strength
Thursday: Metabolic Cardio workout
Friday: Strength
Saturday: Active Recovery (at least 60 minutes)
Sunday: Metabolic Cardio workout
 
LOL! I could kiss you. Shopping is my Active Recovery. Love it!!! :D
 
Steady on Hellie! The poor boy's gone pale!
 
Well, I have always wanted a legitimate excuse to count several hours of shopping as 'exercise' and now, thanks to the miniminiminins board's resident trainer, I can say it's my active recovery. I think that deserves a snog! LOL! ;)
 
I will note that with my clients who are looking for 'extreme' fat loss (I.e - they want to lose half a stone in 5 weeks etc) then their schedule will be similar to as follows:

Sorry just need to ask, I thought 'exteme fat loss' was losing in excess of 2lbs per week. Wouldn't losing half a stone in 5 weeks actually be ideal as it's not fast and is gradual, averaging about 1.4lbs per week? :confused:
 
Oops sorry, I meant to type 4 weeks, not 5. But that is still just a vague example really. What I mean is if anyone wants change their body composition as quickly as possible they'd be encouraged to work everyday in this way. Thats a better way to put it lol.
 
That's good to know Justin. Often I just fancy a gentle swim the day after a heavy workout (well heavy for me) and I was never sure whether that was meant to be detrimental by exercising on a rest day. Thanks
 
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