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 normally walk to school (half an hour one way) so on my “rest” days that I don’t run, I make sure to get that walking in just to clear my mind and for a good stretch =] sitting still all day makes me antsy and that’s not fun!!
I usually play tennis or bike on my two rest days per week. I keep it light and fun. If I do feel like I need some additional rest I take an extra day and then pick back up.
I am bad at rest days too but I plan them for times when I am really busy!
:)
Ha, just like you I took rest day as a day to lay around and “recover”. Then I started to hear more and more about active recovery days. I think there is some truth to keeping the muscles fresh. It is hard to change my mentality on that, but I do think it makes for the next workout not so hard.
I never work out every day of the week, so I guess my rest days are already worked into my schedule. But I agree with you, there shouldn’t be any “rules” for rest days. You should do what you feel like. :)
Hey dear!
I have a past, like you, where I was semi-obsessed with working out. Since then, I try to really limit my exercise days to about five, taking two rest days. I think it is important to realize that balance, and that you don’t need to workout EVERYDAY to be healthy and happy!
Have a fabulous day!
Hmmm I wonder if wandering the CNE and eating a corn dog counts as light activity and focusing on nutrition? ’cause that’s how I spent my recovery day :)
I had the same thoughts about that article. I happened to read it the day after a 7 miler. I too usually partake in lazy rest days- but I thought the author had some good points. I ended up doing some light activity and stretching with some living room yoga in my pjs.
I take 3 days off a week. The “rest” days are varying activity and though I try, I rarely ever get in a lazy day which I really need!
I find that on my ‘rest’ days I was more like you in that I relished in doing little to ziltch activity over and above maybe some stretching of sore muscles. Instead of having all-out rest days though, I have sprinkled in ‘easy’ days once in a while where I go for a long walk instead of a run or other cardio- just to break things up and not burn out. I guess as it turns out I was taking an active rest, and just not thinking of it as ‘rest’ ! I find that going on a walk on my easy days helped me stay on track and made it easier to hit the gym the next day than having an all out sluggy rest day.
I am excited at the possibility of the Chia Seed give-away. I recently ordered a 1lb bag of seeds from TheChiaSeed.com but they never came. Its been a month and I need to check on what the problem is!
My typical rest days, usually Saturdays, include taking our puppy for a nice long walk and enjoying the sunshine and catching up with my husband. This always comes after an hearty breakfast of blueberry pancakes (vegan of course) and decaf coffee (yumm!!). Although, I must admit that these days my rest days have been taken over by my obsession with 24!! My husband and I can’t get enough, we’re addicted, so we end up on the couch all day. But I think I’d still consider this “active recovery” since it’s not at all relaxing and gets the heart pumping a bit for sure!!
PS… would love to try chia seeds in my next green monster ;)
Like you, I used to deny myself rest days, and sure enough (just like my mum warned me!), I BURNED OUT. Like, big time.
I got mono, and I could exercise properly for months, and even after I was technically virus free, I didn’t have the same energy as before.
My lifestlye now is much more relaxed in terms of exercise. Other than yoga, I prefer not to “work out” per se, I just have a really active lifestyle. This seems to suit me much better, and strangely enough (or maybe not), my body looks and feels better than ever!
I think active rest days are wise though, especially if your main work out involves lots of repetitive, strenuous movement (like cycling or running). If this is the case, parts of your body become very strong, but other parts may suffer by becoming very tight, so it’s important to “counter exercise” by stretching out the tight parts, giving a rest to the over-worked parts, and strengthening the neglected parts. I think yoga is great for this kind of balancing.
Take care of yourself, Angela!
Alex
my rest days are usually for biking or elliptical training so that my knees don’t get injured. If I just rest, I feel kinda lazy in a bad way? haha I just try and get some sort of activity in, because if I weren’t training for a half marathon, I would normally be a fairly active person anyway.
-Lo
I like to do absolutely nothing on my rest days. Or as close to nothing as possible. Even if I feel a little stiff the next day, for me, mentally it’s the way to go.
On my rest days I try to think about how great my workout will be the next day…and I walk my dog!
Thanks for the contest!
On my rest day, I take a break from exercise but lose myself in other things that I neglect, like, sitting down and enjoying a coffee at a local coffee shop, reading a book, making a new recipe, and even calling friends and family to chat.
I personally don’t see anything wrong with flat out just taking a REST day! You know your body and if its calling for rest that’s what it needs. (or maybe I am just lazy?) LOL!
I would love to give chia seeds a try! :)
I usually fit in an hour of exercise during the school week before classes (which means a 5:20 wake up!) By the end of the week, I’m drained so I use the weekend for rest (days). Instead of cardio in the AM, I’ll do some light yoga. On Saturday’s I might add in some light cardio in the afternoon and then completely relax and refuel on Sundays.
I vacillate… Some rest days I look at as simply days off of running, and I do gentler exercise like biking or walking. Some rest days I hardly move at. all. Generally, I’ve found that getting in some movement makes me feel the best (as in not so tight for my next run + overall improved mental state), but I try to take complete days off due to my tendency toward being obsessive.
(P.S – I’d love some chia seeds in my kitchen, I can’t find them here!)
If you want to spend your rest day watching movies and reading books, do it! If you’re itching to move a little, take a walk or go for a short bike ride. If you do what your body tells you to do, you can’t go wrong.