

If you’re currently training three intense sessions weekly and experiencing muscle soreness, you might try training six lighter sessions per week.

Getting enough sleep aids all aspects of your performance. It also helps mitigate stressors that might impact your workouts, like depression and stress. ( 2)Īccording to Christie Aschwanden, “nothing trumps sleep when it comes to recovery.” As discussed in our Eight Tips To Speed Your Recovery blog post, sleep is key to physical recovery. If you’ve used our Sleep Cycle Calculator and are getting enough ZZZs but still feel exhausted, sore, and fatigued, you might need to take a break from exercise. Here are a few signs you need a rest day and advice on what to do on rest days: 2. At the most basic level, recovery is relaxation.” ( 1) But it might also be because you don’t rest enough! What is recovery?Īccording to award-winning sports journalist Christie Aschwanden, “recovery is a return to readiness it’s all of the things that our body and mind need to get going again. If you find yourself stuck on a progress plateau, it might be because you don’t train enough. "The most benefit will come from integrating something new with different movement patterns, which could include rowing, biking, hiking, swimming, yoga, or a different modality of exercise than you're used to doing." Keep scrolling for all of the best rest day workout activities you can try for your next recovery sesh.Your performance, muscle mass, and overall vitality benefit from rest! "Physically, it's important to mix up your movement patterns," says Von Frohlich. Rest days could be a perfect opportunity to try something that involves totally different movement patterns than what you typically do. "Lightweight or bodyweight movements are great, but heavy weights will work against your recovery efforts." Sports can also be considered high intensity, he adds, unless you're highly conditioned to them. "Light jogging is great, but sprints would be counterproductive," says Coggan. Heavy weight lifting or speed work are also not going to make the cut. "You will want to avoid resistance training on your rest day to help avoid injuries and give your body time to recover," says Norris. "The best thing to do on these days is mobility work, light cardio, and stretching, which will help with your recovery process and keep your body moving at the same time." He recommends foam rolling as another great activity to do since it increases blood flow and oxygen to your muscles on days when you aren't going HAM at the gym.Īs for what to avoid, make sure you're not doing anything high intensity or that involves resistance. "Rest days are mandatory if you want to avoid injuries and let you stay efficient during your regular workouts," says Justin Norris, co-founder of LIT Method. "Blood flow to the muscles and tissues actually aids in the recovery process as this shuttles healthy nutrients to the body and encourages repair." -Andy Cogganīecause working out intensely every single day is taxing on your body, rest day workouts benefit your body so that it gets a necessary break from high impact or hitting your max effort. "Blood flow to the muscles and tissues actually aids in the recovery process as this shuttles healthy nutrients to the body and encourages repair."

"Strategically planned recovery days give your muscles the chance to repair and rebuild, your nervous system the chance to reap the benefits of your effort, and your energy stores the ability to replenish for the next bout," says Andy Coggan, senior director of fitness for Gold's Gym, who adds that these days are key for any physical goal that you may have. Benefits of a rest day workoutĮven though it's totally fine to take a rest day and spend it in repose, you'll gain added benefits to your overall strength by doing light activity. Keep scrolling to learn more about rest day workouts, example workouts that you can do, and signs that your body could use one. Long walks, stretching, and restorative yoga are all ways to get some movement on your off-days. Instead, active recovery is something that trainers say can actually aid in your body's recoup process after more intense workouts.
