How often are your rest days? or maybe you train 6-7 days per week with not much rest…
I want to tell you that rest days are just as important as training days! Inadequate rest can lead to overtraining and prevents the body’s ability to recover from intense training. Without proper rest and recovery you could experience side effects including decreased performance, fatigue, poor sleep, decreased immunity, loss of appetite and mood swings.
During workouts, especially with resistance training muscle tissue breaks down causing microscopic tears in the muscle and needs time to repair itself. Having enough rest as well as adequate water and nutrition will help the muscle tissue rebuild to make it stronger. A great way to ensure you are getting enough rest could be planning your exercise to 1 day on and 1 day off or 2 days on and 1 day off during your training week. Plan your schedule so you get at least 2 rest days during your training week.
You can also include a ‘deload’ into your training schedule.
What is a deload? This is a short planned recovery period that usually lasts a week. You take your training lighter, workout a little less and can be great for you to reset your body if you are feeling a little demotivated, having poor performance or stuck in a plateau. This can be done by reducing your sets, going lighter in weights or reduce the amount of exercises you do.
If you’re feeling like you are training day in and day out with not much results or you’re just flat, demotivated, moody and not sleeping well try taking a few rest days or include a deload week. Your body will thank you!