Rest Days for fitness junkies - what are yours like? How often?

[Anonymous]

I generally do a variety of things, and feel like I can get away with not having a rest day for up to a couple of weeks. It's hard to get in the mindset of taking a rest day and not feeling lazy or bad about it, and worried that it'll be hard to jump back by taking a solid day off. Tonight is one of those nights for me... there's a class I like taking on tuesdays, but I'm really not feeling it tonight. I'm sore and achy from a HIIT class yesterday, and just don't feel like moving.

Do you feel guilty about taking rest days? How often do you take them?

[Anonymous]

I take one rest day per week. I’m a 35-40 miles-per-week runner. I cherish and need my rest day and I never feel bad about it—rest is good and the body needs to repair itself from stress. I know a lot of runners who are nowhere near as fast as me yet run every day and often run faster. It’s not always a matter of training harder, it’s a matter of training smarter.

[Anonymous]

I take at least one rest day per week, sometimes two. I used to exercise 6-7 days/week and now that I'm getting older (I'm 41), I'm starting to feel it in my joints. I don't feel any guilt at all because I want to do what's best for my body.

[Anonymous]

I try to avoid total rest days, maybe I'll do some light cardio or Pilates reformer on off days. I try to mix it up so I don't get too tired using one body area.

[Anonymous]

I used to train six days a week playing various sports: running, swimming, rowing, and really felt like I needed a true day off. Now that I'm not doing that anymore, I can mix it up enough that I may take a day off from cardio, but do a solidcore class or something. That's not easy at all, but I also don't feel the need to do nothing most weeks. If I feel like I need a day off, I take one. Maybe once a month?

[Anonymous]

6 days a week crossfitter and 1 day yoga. I am a 47 year old female. I don’t feel bad taking a day off. Probably should have taken today off - didn’t push myself very hard at Crossfit. It was better than doing nothing obviously!!

[Anonymous]

My workouts are very high intensity (running, HIIT, weights).
I don't really take full days off, though if I'm not feeling it, I do low impact stuff: abs, light weights, yoga/pilates, long walks.

[Anonymous]

What do you define as a rest day? I usually do yoga and low impact stuff on rest days. I don't think it's good to do absolutely nothing unless you have an injury or illness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do you define as a rest day? I usually do yoga and low impact stuff on rest days. I don't think it's good to do absolutely nothing unless you have an injury or illness.

The entire fitness and science worlds disagree.

[Anonymous]

Sunday’s are lazy family day/get ready for the week day. Lots of walking in the form of stores, taking the dog for a long walk, maybe an easy family hike.

Thursday’s are my catch up on work day. I use the 2 hours I’m normally at the gym to catch up on little projects and schedule most of my meetings for that day to keep me sedentary. Then Friday I have a moderate workout and Saturday I have my heaviest of the week.

[Anonymous]

I very rarely take them. I alternate activities, so one day I'm running and the next I'm lifting. If I'm not feeling 100%, I'll dial it back and maybe just take a yoga class, walk 2-3 miles or jump on the arc trainer for a bit.

I feel lazy and restless when I take rest days, unless I'm sick. Most of my rest days happen because I'm sick. (and occasionally hungover after a night of too much fun.)

[Anonymous]

All these "I don't take rest day!" warriors are foolish. Rest is when your muscles rebuild and grow. Taking no rest days is detrimental to your own progress.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All these "I don't take rest day!" warriors are foolish. Rest is when your muscles rebuild and grow. Taking no rest days is detrimental to your own progress.

Surely doing yoga can be classified as a rest day. Not something strenuous like vinyasa or bikram but a stretchy hatha class would be a good rest day acitivity. It’s not like you lie in bed doing nothing on a rest day

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All these "I don't take rest day!" warriors are foolish. Rest is when your muscles rebuild and grow. Taking no rest days is detrimental to your own progress.

True, but it also depends what your workouts are like. If you're doing strenuous doubles daily, yes, you absolutely need a full rest day. A varied program of, say, yoga, weights, running, swimming? Maybe not. You have to order your workouts properly, but my guess is that the vast majority of people aren't working hard enough to *need* a rest day the way that serious athletes do (having trained at that level for many years, I know it well).

[Anonymous]

I'm one of the "rest days are rare" posters. It's not that I'm some crazy obsessed warrior. I just like the way working out makes me feel - it's a healthy form of stress release for me, and a mood lifter. So if I can't work out, I try to do something active, like 20 minutes of yoga at home or a 2-mile walk around the neighborhood with my daughter. But I'm at a level of fitness where most of my workouts don't really take a lot out of me. Running 5-6 miles at a time is my normal. Lifting for 20 minutes and then doing 30 minutes on the arc trainer (not at a particularly high incline) is my normal. I'm not normally sore after these activities. If I were, I'd dial it back. I dial it back when needed. (I took yesterday completely off because I wasn't feeling 100%.)