9 Things to do on Your Next Rest Day

Getting adequate rest after working out is very important for optimal recovery and to see effective result of your workouts, this is why it is necessary to have rest days incorporated into your training. 

Tips on what to do on your rest day

Pay attention to your body: You are the only one who can truly understand your body.  At the start of your rest day examine your body, and listen to what it is telling you that is needed for total recovery, whether it is light workout, more sleep, more water, some types of foods or all of these. 

Diet: Even though your body requires less calories on rest days, that does not mean that you should deprive your body of food that it needs. If your body ask for food eat and eat healthy. 

Protein: On rest day, your body repairs your muscles and so having adequate amount of protein is important as they provide the nutrients for muscle building and repairing. 

Carbohydrates: Eating enough amount of carbohydrates helps to restore your body's glycogen levels and gets your well energized for future workout. 

Fruits and Vegs: Having enough fruits and vegetables on rest day provides your body with vitamins and minerals needed for recovery. 

Water: Proper hydration is important even on rest days as it helps to prevent muscle aches and aids transport of nutrients in the body.

Stretch: Rest day doesn't mean total inactivity, doing short dynamic and static stretches are necessary to help aid recovery. Some low impact workouts such as walking, dancing, biking and kayaking are also very good choices on rest day as they help you stay active without stressing the body. 

Yoga: Doing yoga on your rest day has so many benefits as it is great for improving flexibility, breathing and body awareness. It also helps to make you calm, refreshed, builds strength and loosen your muscles. 

Adequate Sleep: Having adequate sleep gives your body the chance and time to heal, rest and recover. It also helps you feel refreshed in the morning. 

Importance of Rest Days

1. Gives room for recovery: Rest day gives your body the opportunity to recover from previous workouts. 

2. Boost muscle growth: Microscopic tears are created in the muscles during workouts. However during rest days, the fibroblasts helps to repair and heal the tears which results in stronger muscles. 

3. Replenish Energy: The energy stored in your muscles in form of glycogen is broken down to help fuel your workouts. Having adequate rest allows our body to have enough time to replenish your energy stores in preparation for your next workout. 

4. Prevents fatigue: Having regular rest days helps to protect your body against fatigue caused by workouts. It also helps to prevent muscle fatigue and soreness that occurs as a result of low glycogen levels. 

5. Lowers injury risk: Overworking your body can lead you doing workout in the  wrong forms, dropping weights and this can lead you getting injured and then being forced to rest. It is much better to willingly have rest days without pain than to be forced to rest with body aches.

6. Better Performance: Having adequate rest helps to restore your energy which gives you the ability to be better at your workouts, and also provides motivation to do more challenging workouts. 

7. Balanced Hormone: When exercise is done excessively it can lead to your body over producing some hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. Resting allows your hormones to return back to a balanced and normal state. This can result in having healthy sleep.

How you know you need to have a rest day

1. Persistent sore muscles.

2.  Extreme Fatigue.

3. Persistent muscle or joint pain. 

4. Finding it difficult to sleep.

5. Decrease in performance. 

Rest days are very important and differ from person to person, depending on the type and intensity of the workout that you are involved in and can be done in different ways, for example you can allocate different days to different muscles groups, this way you rest your muscles on the days they are not been worked. Another way is by selecting a day during the week when you only do light stretching and light cardio (walking). 

At the end of the day, how and when you choose to have rest days is totally up to you. Just ensure you are not overworking your body and enjoy your fitness journey.

 

 

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