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!
My rest day attitude all depends on my plans and mood for that day. If I’ve been extremely busy and tired from kicking butt in the gym all week, I take total advantage of not doing any activity that requires a change of clothes and a shower.
However, lately, I’ve been more fidgety on my rest days and take absolute advantage of going for a long walk or doing some light yoga or strength training moves.
Hi Angela,
On rest days, I do some light walking or yoga or stretching.
Thanks for the great giveaway.
Hey Angela, would love to win this bag of chia seeds! Thanks for the chance… on rest days I usually take it realllllly slow, and only exercise if i need to go somewhere- then i might walk or bike.
I love, love, love my rest day!!!! I take every Sunday off. I try to stay in my PJ’S until at least 10am or 11am (I get up with my 15 month old every day at 5:30am). Then I take a shower while Gabriel naps. After lunch we take a three mile walk to Starbucks for some milk and tea. That’s my only “exercise” for the whole day. Heaven!!!
P.S. I have never tried chia seeds and would love to!
I am going to be doing a contest that just may by chance include a chia seed giveaway…I wanted to wait to start mine til yours and Kristin’s is done and mine starts tomorrow. There’s a lotta chia goin’ on in the blogosphere right now :) Would love to hear your fave chia recipes!
For my rest days, I usually still walk to work and home (when it is not freezing out). So, that is about 5 miles combined. But, no running or weight training. Sometimes on my rest days, I will do some LIGHT Hatha Yoga. Mostly, because it helps me relax mentally. Since running is a way to relieve my stress, when I don’t run I have a hard time shutting my brain off at night, so the Hatha helps.
Good Topic!
I find that active rest is always better for me- a relaxing walk, a leisurely bike ride, or some gentle yoga. After a day of laying around doing nothing, I actaully feel a bit sore and achy. I would love to win the chia-love that chocolate chia pudding. Yum!
I usually do yoga on my rest days. What a great giveaway!
I have found that if I’m super sore, going for a walk helps me be less so the next day.
I try to catch up on laundry on my rest days. It’s a chore that needs to be done, but is not strenuous. I love to fold while I watch my trashy tv! :)
I LOVE CHIA SEEDS! And I take 1-2 full rest days a week!
CHIA SEEDS! I have had my eye on these for months but they just don’t fit into my college student budget. On rest days the most I will do is a little yoga or a walk. I feel like it is a day earned for all the hard work I put forth all the other days!
On rest days I usually try to go for a walk or do some yoga. However, I’m also known to just veg out on the couch and watch re-runs.
I just started actually taking a rest day. I used to use the excuse of “active rest” days. I became very obsessive about working out 7 days a week. Recently my knees started giving me touble from my intense workouts 7 days a week. So I gave myself a break (the first in over 2 years). It worked. My knees stopped hurting even though I went absolutely nuts not being able to ride my cardio bike, do Pilates or anything else. Now Wednesdays are my off day and I practice meditation. I’m not very good at it. I only lasted 5 breath cycles last week. This is only my second week doing this. I’m doing it as part of a 30 day challenge so that I give it a fair shot. At the end of the 30 days (September) I will evaluate how I liked it and how it worked.
I’m going to have to try chia seeds. They are all the rage on blogs these days.
Cha cha cha chia!
Walking, yoga and swimming are my usual rest day activities. After my long runs I like to take the next day off and go for short walks to keep my muscles from stiffening and spend about 20-30 min doing some serious stretching, especially with the foam roller. It is insanely painful but nothing works as well as the roller to loosen up those tight hamstrings and glutes! And of course I catch up on sleep (naps always help) and spend tons of time preparing delicious healthy meals!
I loved this post, thanks for sharing. I just had a few off days and I worked really hard to let my body rest by doing a lot of the things you posted. Eating right, getting enough sleep…etc. It feels good to treat your body good. I am coming to realize that the better I am to my body, the better it will be to me! :) Thanks for all your insight! natalie
www.nono2yoyo.wordpress.com
The day after an intense workout I take the time to really pamper myself. I tend to eat very healthily the days I workout, but on rest days I crave sweets like no other and tend to veg on the couch with a good book. I find that indulging myself on rest days really amps up my energy for subsequent workouts!
Hmmm… I suppose I have active rest days because I walk my dog around our park at least once per day and that is 1.5 miles. If it’s a real rest day though, that’s the only exercise I do.
I usually take one day a week off from intense exercise, but I try to do something active even then. I live in this great neighborhood where everything is within walking distance. I’ll go 10 blocks to the local library and back, or I’ll walk to grab groceries. During the summer I was jumping in the lake and swimming a few laps. It doesn’t feel like exercise, but it’s good to get out and keep moving!