How critical on a scale of 1-10 are rest days?
*I ususally only have 1 rest day a week, and even on that day I will still go to the gym to do cardio…i have plateued quite a bit.
When you take rest days do you…
Yeah I am wondering too. It has been 5 months that I have been training 5 days a week, with the rest days being the weekend.
I personally don’t feel anything bad about doing that, so I never stressed the question. I would still like to know from a theorical standpoint though.
Rest days rank a 10 for me. I just beat the shit outta my body in the gym and need the time off. Actually, I’ve begun taking 2 days off between full-body workouts and liking that so far. On day is a light cardio day and the other is complete rest.
When I started rest wasen’t nearly as important, but I learned how to push myself to the point where the rest is needed.
Depends what level you are at and what you are doing. Far too variable to put into a simple reply. Rest however is a 10/10 whether that be a day, a backoff week, or a month of deloading after half a year. For a beginner, a simple good nights sleep might be enough and they might be able to train 7 daysa week. With a few lighter days. Or maybe 6 days who knows.
Furthermore it is a very personal thing.
I guarantee you though that rest of some kind is essential.
You need to learn about 2 factor theory … the two factors being, that when you train, you increase your fitness levels AND at the same time you increase your fatigue. BUT fatigue goes away real fast, and fitness lasts a lot longer. So you exercise for 2 weeks and the fitness you develop will last for another 6 weeks say, but the tiredness will go away in perhaps 2 days of rest. And THEN you will be able to see how much stronger you are.
I hope that makes sense
If working out mon, weds, fri … well, you might feel like crap on Sat. And sunday feel OK. And monday next, feel like a tiger. Tues, a bit tired but keen. Weds, like a smaller tiger. Thurs, a bit worn down. Fri, like a large tomcat but eager. Sat, like a kitten that was dragged from the lake. you get my drift. you are cycling the fatigue and managing it and all the while, increasing your fitness levels.
Note some people work hard for months and get apparently weaker and weaker or stay the same, then they deload for a week or so and then bam! strong. all that strength accumulated can be displayed. prob. not the best approach if bodybuilding / size is your aim, though.
In my opinion hardgainers are just people who don’t adapt well within the standard routines … they cannot recover from fatigue quick enough to grow. Feeling strong again from a rest is one thing, but being able togrow as well, that takes a bit of a backoff.
Note that volume training and intensity training have different effects on your recovery from fatigue. You can cycle these cleverly. example:
3 weeks volume
1 week lighter volume
3 weeks high intensity
1 week lower intensity
That is pretty much out of Thibs’ book.
So in summary, rest is 10/10 - without it, you will suck big time.
This makes sense…I have these strange days where I feel tired. For instance, I will have a killer chest/leg day followed by a very poor back day…due to the fatigue from the chest day.
Maybe I should take more rest days or statigeically place rest days after very hard days.
Also I just put in a order for Biotest Power Drive, should get here mid next week. I will be posting my progress with that under the supplements and nutrition section. I want to see if the product helps with my so called “down days” where I dont feel as strong.
recovering is half your workout. So 10.
I workout 3 days a week. So I have 4 days of rest
What about active recovery?