Active rest days and training periodisation

Photo by Aleksander Eilertsen

Do you train hard and you are devoted to each to your workout? Then you have to remember about proper rest day. An active rest day, we can called it. 

Why?

Your muscles needs time to recover! With reason weight trainings are normally split into parts - just to give your body time to repair each muscle you train drugining your workout. The time you're muscle have to recover after very hard weight training is approximately 48 hours. With lighter training, it can be 24 hours.

Training to much might be as harmfull as no training at all - no motivation&no progress

Why for?

To avoid mental and phisicall overtraining. If you train without breaks, your body will be stiff and you will loose the joy which came from working out. Even if you are in the 'fat burning machine' mood you have to consider giving yourself a break.
It also will prevent injuries. You want to train for years, do you? :)

Massage can be the most pleasant form of a rest day, however it costs, but it is worth considering! Your body will be gratefull for that! :)

How?

Taking a rest day not neccesary means lying all day on the sofa. Keep your daily activity in normal, but do not workout that day. You can take a walk, of course, but by avoiding working out I meant running 10 kilometers ;)
Sleep a little longer, have an relaxing stretch session, just enjoy your time :) 
If you have a possibility to take a massage, do it!

Recovery week

In a longer perspective, there is also good to give body some longer rest than just a day. 
You might consider a week off from workout each 3-4 months of your typical training session (also known as training periodisation). A one week break won't destroy your figure and progress (unless you won't eat all day long in McDonald ;), but might help with getting more energy for upcomming training which can result in even better progress than you thought! 

This chart might look complicated but in fact it shows how rest day can increase your progress after taking a little break from training

Just be carefull with your diet druning the receovery week. Your body won't need that much calories intake as in days filled with training.

An example of training periodisation

Always try to look at your trainings with a long-time perspective. It is what you do day by day which counts, but to plan ahead is also crucial here. 


I am spending my today's rest day at work and maybe with some 20 minutes stretch session :) Have a nice Saturday!