The Importance of R&R

Now that I'm recovering from a slight cold, I thought now was as good a time as any to have a little talk with my readers about the importance of R&R- rest and recovery days.  Most training and workout schedules will have 1 or 2 scheduled "rest" days per week.  When you first start a program, you'll likely look forward to these scheduled rest days. As you develop a habit of exercising and discover the joy of fitness-induced endorphins, you may actually find yourself begin to dread your rest days.  Whatever your attitude about the scheduled rest day, they are absolutely essential to nearly any workout program- click here to find out why and how essential it is to improve your overall performance.

My current workout program, Insanity has one rest day per week and now that I'm in the tougher Month 2 of the program we also have what's called a "recovery" workout (still a challenging workout but not nearly as demanding as the other days).  There was even an entire week devoted to "recovery" in between month 1 and 2 in which you spend six consecutive days doing the same Core Cardio & Balance workout (which I loved by the way).  What's the difference between a rest and recovery day? Sometimes not much- I find myself often itching to be active on my designated rest days so I'll either go for a jog or a walk on these so called "rest" days.  And that's okay.   Just as it would be okay if I opted not to take a jog or a walk and just go about my usual day with no set sweat it all out kind of a workout in the mix.

Does a rest day give you permission to sit on your butt all day and watch an X Files marathon?  Nope.  Unless, of course, your muscles are super sore and it hurts to move anything- in which case, I'd say you're definitely overtraining yourself and are in serious need of a rest & recovery week.  To avoid overtraining and make the most out of your workout program with the smart use of rest & recovery days is to LISTEN TO YOUR BODY.  It sounds so easy, right?  But so often times, our brains or our hearts start speaking up loudly and it makes it difficult to near impossible to hear what our body is so desperately trying to tell us.  Sometimes our stubborn gray matter starts shouting, "this is too much! I'm too tired! You need to take a break!" when our body and our heart are ready & raring to go that it starts drowning out all other voices and we give in to taking an unscheduled rest day when we don't truly need it.   Othertimes, that brave and foolish heart starts chirping in loudly, "let's do this! We can do it! No rest day, get to it!" when our body so desperately needs a reprieve. 

Sometimes you have to make a concerted effort to hush all the other parts of yourself and just listen to your body.  There's a general rule about rest days due to illness that I've read and heard dozens of times -  if you’re sick from the neck up (head cold, sore throat, etc) you can still work out, neck down (body chills) take the day off.  Yesterday, I was suffering from a sinus cold.  I could have just simply followed that general rule and had at it with my scheduled workout but I didn't- I listened to my body very carefully and when I did it spoke loud and clear to me. It told me it was too weak and fatigued from fighting off this cold to even make it through the warm-up of a high intensity workout. I listened.  I told my brain which kept trying to reiterate the general rule on illness to me to just shut up and chill.  I went for a slow 2 mile walk with my daughter in our jogging stroller instead...and my body thanked me for it. 

Rest and recovery days are essential- they prevent overtraining and allow your body the chance to recover and repair from your workouts.   Believe it or not, recovery days help make our bodies stronger.  Pencil these days into your workout program.  Add some additional ones if and when your body truly needs them.  Believe it or not, they will help make you stronger in the long run.