Good morning!
It isn’t always easy returning to school or work after the last long weekend of summer. So to cheer you all up, I am having a fun chia seed giveaway this morning!
Read on to find out how to enter. :)
Rest Days: What Exactly Do You Do?
Over the years, my thoughts on rest and recovery days have been all over the map.
In my late teens and early twenties, I rarely considered the option of even giving myself a so called rest day. I did too much and I felt burned out. No surprises there.
After my injury this year, something sort of clicked inside me and I started to appreciate taking rest days. I realized that if I was going to give my best performance, I needed to let my body heal itself.
Over the past several months as I have been training for my summer races, I realized even more how important a rest day can be and how much it improves both my physical and mental energy. As my mileage has increased, I appreciate and look forward to my rest days more and more.
What do I do on my rest day?
I typically take the term ‘rest day’ to heart. I don’t exercise or really even move much during my rest days. I see it as a well deserved lazy day when I don’t feel a workout nagging in the back of my mind. However, I will admit, some of my rest days I am left feeling fidgety. Some days I want to exercise a bit, but I feel like I would be harming my body and not giving it proper rest. I am also questioning if I should be doing anything else on my rest days. More stretching, sleeping, icing, eating, etc. Truly, rest days couldn’t be as simple as resting, could they?
Given this dilemma, I was quite happy to see my Runner’s World arrive in the mail. One of the featured cover stories, ‘Rest Right: Make the most of your days off’ caught my attention. Like always, the fabulous people at Runner’s World read my mind.
Here is the kicker:
Exercise physiologist, Dr. Stephen McGregor says to make the most out of your recovery days doing absolutely nothing all day is not ideal.
I’m telling you guys, I almost threw this magazine in the garbage! I said to myself, ‘No one can take away my lazy rest days! Noooooooooo!’
Wait, I’m supposed to move on my rest days? AreyoujokingIhopeyouarejokingme.
Dr. McGregor says that having an active recovery (have you ever heard of a bigger oxymoron!?) can sooth aches and prepare you for stronger workouts better than an inactive recovery day.
Still not liking where this is going. But, I read on. ;)
The article went on to give some tips for increasing the benefit of recovery days.
1) Move It
Do very light activity like walking your dog or riding a bike for about 30 minutes. “Keep the intensity low…you shouldn’t be out of breath.”
2) Loosen Up
We don’t always have time to stretch properly after tough workouts, especially if they are long in duration. Use your rest days to focus on stretching out your tight spots. Research in the British Journal of Sports Medicine finds that yoga boosts running performance.
3) Eat Smart
Focus on eating the nutrients that you don’t get enough of during the week. If you normally spend 45 minutes on exercise, take some of this time to plan out proper nutrition.
3) Tune In Early
Our bodies and brains need sleep to heal from the mental and physical stress of training. Try to get 7-9 hours of undisturbed sleep.
My thoughts:
Ok, so some light activity might not hurt me, in fact it could actually improve my recovery. I think I am going to be more open to the idea of doing some light walking on my rest days if I want to.
However, coming from my obsessive past with exercise, I know that information like this can be used in a negative way by some. I think it is important to stress that even though some light activity may improve recovery, it is still 100% FINE and DANDY to just sit on the couch during our rest days. We earned the rest and we can spend it however we please.
So of course, take this article with a grain of salt. The take home message here is if you want to do some light exercise and find yourself fidgety when sitting still all day then by all means do some. But, don’t allow yourself to fall into the ‘I should be doing more and more’ trap. If you really want to veg out on your rest day, then veg the heck out!
How do you approach rest days? Are you an all out rester or do you prefer to get in some activity? Have you found that activity helps your recovery?
Leave one comment below by midnight EST for your chance to win a 3 pound bag of chia seeds, graciously donated by Chia Seeds Direct. Contest open to US and Canadian residents only please.
I hear that Chia Seeds Direct also has free shipping within the US.
Chia seeds…the wonder seed!
Goodluck and Happy Short Work Week!
See you later for a breakdown of what to do immediately after an intense workout from minutes 0-45. Have I been doing it all wrong? Stay tuned to find out!
I have been dying to try chia seeds and can’t find any around me,so I think this would be perfect for me! :)
On my rest days from training I usually do nothing because I arrange my rest days around the days of the week I have work and plans after work. I wish I could motivate myself to get up early and do some yoga, but I just never can!
interesting rest day article! i kind of take both approaches – i don’t mind going for walks or doing some yoga or something like that on rest days, but ONLY if i want to. sometimes, i do nothing at all!
awesome giveaway…need me some chia in my life!
I’m eyin’ those chia seeds, but this information sure was useful!
rest days can be tricky indeed. i’m with you – when i am going to rest, i want to make it count! but i can also see where light movement can help. i tend to get stiff if i don’t move around a bit, so a leisurely stroll around the neighborhood usually helps.
The gym that I go to is near my work so I tend to rest on the weekend. Sometimes I will just lounge around but usually I’ll do something like at least once, like a yogadownload.com session with my husband or a casual walk around the neighborhood.
I love chia seeds – my current favorite way to eat them is to mmake chocolate pudding with greek yogurt, cocoa powder, cacao nibs, cinnamon, and chia seeds to thicken it up. Yum!
Hi,
I have two scheduled rest days… one day is always immediately following my long training run. If the long run is less than 10K though i will normally hit up the gym for a spin class the evening of the rest day. On sunday i ran 18K (in the pouring rain!!) and trust me, i did NOTHING remotely resembling exercise yesterday. ha ha
On the second rest day, it’s usually following a hill/pace training day, and that day I use as my meal prep and grocery shopping day instead of hitting the gym. I find that when I plan out my meals and do one big shop I am way more focused on eating healthy and not picking up fast unhealthy choices.
Thanks!
on my “Rest” days i like to go for a leisurely walk with friends just to take in nature :)
great contest! i have never tried these chia seeds but you make them look so yummy
Interesting article!
I have been looking everywhere for Chia seeds and can NOT find them anywhere in my small town. Would LOVE to win these!
Hi Angela! On rest days, I still walk my dog in the morning and evening- just not for the usual 3 miles each. I LOVE your blog and would love to try chia seeds :)
I generally do some type of activity on rest days; light walk, gentle yoga (not hot or power). I find that if I don’t do anything I get in bed at night and can’t sleep because i haven’t burned off some extra energy.
I do some type of activity on the rest days. Usually it is just walking my dog outside, it does both of us some good!
I usually do some sort of activity on a rest day like take the dog on a hike or massive shopping :-)
It is hard for me to take a rest day… my mind is way to active! Movement helps to calm me…. I always end up doing something–even if it is just a quick elliptical session…
I want to get my hands on those seeds! My whole foods has been out of them!
I like walking on my off days (my two dogs certainly appreciate it), but when I’m training for a big race (i.e. marathon) I think it’s important to take at least 1-2 days of absolute laziness to let my legs heal up! Also, some days I just let my body tell me what it needs. If I’m feeling run down and terribly achey, I’ll give myself the day off.
On rest days, I rest (and go for a brisk walk with the dogs – that happens every day).
when i’m feeling lazy, i let myself be lazy, but i also try to stretch, etc. on those days, but who says you can’t stretch while watching tv, thats my favorite. hope i win, i’ve wanted to try chia seeds all summer!
I usually try to do something on my days off… even if it just walking around a shopping center!
Sometimes I will do nothing on my day off, full and complete laziness and another time I will do light stretching or clean the house.
Chia seeds, would love some.:)
My rest days vary. I’m perfectly content with sitting on the couch watching marathons of Law and Order or getting out and going for a nice walk with the BF. It all depends on my mood. I let my body do the talking and whatever happens, happens. I’m pretty relaxed when it comes to my off days.
It really depends, but on most of my rest days, I’ll get about 30 minutes of walking in, since I walk home from work most days.