You might have been told to stay active and exercise regularly, to improve muscle gain and strength, which is right and good. But rest and recovery are important part of the routine which is forgotten or overlooked. In this case, more is not better and rest is as important as the workout itself. If you want to get good results then don’t skip the rest days.
Recovery and rest are to allow the body to repair itself and become stronger. This way you can go back stronger and perform better. Regardless of your fitness level and type of workout rest and recovery days are important and you should not avoid these. By not taking a day off you can be prey to overtraining and it might be weakling the body instead of strengthening it.
In short, the rest is necessary. So, what better to keep the workout shirt off for a day or two and enjoy it with family and friends?
Rest is About Recovery
Rest is about recovery, not working out or even spending a day on the couch does not mean the gains will go away. It is the time when your hard work is paying off, with muscle recovery happening. Rimba Sweat sauna Sydney tells us that a few of their clients are athletes that use saunas on a rest day as they say the heat helps improve circulation to the muscles that aid in faster recovery, as well as being a relaxing activity. This is only one way you may choose to spend a rest day, but there are many more. However, rest days do not mean cheat days or eating unhealthy foods. But there is a probability that your cheat day is a rest day.
It Prevents Muscle Fatigue
Avoiding rest can cause muscle fatigue because exercise and workouts deplete glycogen levels in muscles. Remember? No rest day means more depletion of glycogen levels which will result in non-proper recovery resulting in muscle fatigue and soreness. Do you know what happens then, you might have to spend a week without any intense activity. Better skip a workout for a day or two in a week.
It Reduces Injury Risk
Continuous workouts can cause muscle injury because exercise damages the muscles and rest help them recover. Remember biology class? In such conditions, you will be feeling tired already causing mistakes and poor performance. You might drop the weight on your foot. Or keep on doing it all wrong, which again will be problematic. And again, these things will lead to an elongated rest period and maybe bed rest. I say it is better to enjoy the weekends without any workouts. You can still wear your workout shorts or joggers T-shirt though.
It Promotes Better Performance
If you aren’t getting enough rest you will be less motivated and even frustrated with workouts. This is one of the reasons that lead one to quit working out. There can be many reasons for this but only one solution, i.e. rest.
Once you rest, the body will recover well. Then coming back, you will feel the power and energy. This will let you do your workout properly and efficiently. As workouts are about pushing yourself and a tired or damaged body cannot be pushed harder and further. If you try to it will break. By reducing muscle fatigue and reducing injury risk you will be able to perform better.
Conclusion
Eating right, sleeping well, and taking some days off are good recovery methods. You might have heard that you should do cardio on rest days. I am completely against these. Rest means rest, or in other words no workout of any type. I do not consider yoga to be a workout so I am cool with that. Sleep is the best thing you can do to help the body recover. So, get quality 6-8 hours of sleep and see the results going up.