It’s recommended that adults should get 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week, or about 30 minutes a day for five days a week. Including a rest day in your routine can help you get the most out of your workout. Tyler Clarkson, an Avera strength and conditioning coach, explains how important it is to give your body a break.
What are rest days?
Rest days are super important, especially when you are feeling fatigued, or your muscles are really sore after a strenuous workout. It’s a good day to help your muscles and body recover, as well as you need those rest days to help your muscles grow.
How many should you take?
That just depends on how strenuous your workouts are, so if you’re putting in a super hard workout you might need an extra rest day in the week. Typically I’d say a minimum of two, that would be my recommendation just to make sure you’re not overtraining and your body is ready to go for your next workout.
Does your body let you know you need a rest day?
Just that general fatigue, your muscles are sore, it’s harder than normal to get out of bed in the morning, that’s usually a pretty good sign that you need to take a rest day. It’s never going to hurt anything, rest days only help.
Consider active recovery
I’m one of those people where it’s hard to just sit there and not do anything. So going outside and getting a walk in or if you want to go through a stretching routine, something that is going to be low impact and not super hard on your body is going to be a good thing that you can do for an active recovery on rest days.
What are the benefits?
It’s definitely something that everybody should be taking advantage of. Athletes get sore but if you’re just an everyday person like myself, you still get sore, you still need those rest days to help your body recover and help your muscles grow.
