Why Do We Need Rest Days?

DAILY REST & REST DAYS

Just like you need to switch off work every day after you 8-9 hours of work and you need your weekend to get refreshed, your body need a break too. Training is a form of physical stress to the body, you cannot keep exposing your body to stress continuously every day; your body needs to rest as well.

Rest can come in many shapes; immediate post workout rest, daily night sleep to recover, weekly scheduled rest days. Here are top three reasons of why we need to rest.

First, rest allow time for your body to recover. Recovery is essentials for general health and adaptation to take place; like muscle growth. Stress elevates cortisol levels, constant stress keep your cortisol levels elevated, this overworks your systems, mood, focused, can cause anxiety and trouble sleeping, thus you inter a loop of stress, then you become at higher risk of injury.

Second, rest gives your body time to replenish these energy stores before your next workout. The muscles store carbohydrates in the form of glycogen. During exercise, your body breaks down glycogen to fuel your workout. Replenishing your muscles will prevent fatigue so you can perform better in your next raining session.

Finally, rest forms a break of routine to allow for mental health, take your mind elsewhere other than what you usually do. So when you come back to training you feel recharged and ready for new challenges.

Things you can don your rest days, some yoga or stretching to improve recovery or some active recovery training, in the form of very low intensity aerobic work that will help improve blood circulation and speed up recovery with nutrients and oxygen delivery to muscles. just be sure to listen to your body and not over do it that it becomes an actual training session that could add more strain instead of recovery.

Bottom line,

CHOSE REST, BEFORE REST CHOSES YOU!