It’s tough sometimes, making yourself rest. We can get caught up in a mad rush towards our goals doing workout after workout never wanting to stop. More isn’t always better when it comes to making progress!
I always recommend my clients take at least 1 (maybe 2 if they’re feeling fatigued) rest day a week. It’s important to give your body a day to full recover from all the training it’s done for the last 6 days straight. This becomes especially important when you’re following and intense training program like The Get Fit Guide.
When you do resistance training your muscles get tiny micro tears. As your muscles recover they come back stronger. Rest is when you make your ‘gains’. If you never give your muscles a chance to recover, you won’t make the progress that you’re working so hard for. This is one of the reasons you shouldn’t train the same muscle group extremely hard back to back days.
While you don’t need to do a full on workout, there is such a thing as an active rest day. If you still want to have some activity, here’s a few great things to do on rest day that promote muscle recovery!
Light yoga
Stretching
My Favorite Lower Body Stretch Routine
An easy walk
Foam rolling
Lower Body Foam Rolling
Any of these make a great addition to rest day!
If you find that you’re really sore on a rest day you should definitely consider adding an activity or two above to your day. When muscles are tight and sore, sometimes our first reaction is to sit and not move them at all. While we think we’re allowing them to ‘rest’ like this, it often just keeps the muscles tight and sore longer.
Next time you find yourself sore on your day off, take a light walk followed by some stretching and/or foam rolling! It will do wonders for your body and you’ll have a much better workout the next day!
