The Importance of a Rest Day
When we start to develop a workout plan be it to have a healthier lifestyle or to train for a specific sporting event such as a marathon, we know the importance of keeping our fitness goal. We create a disciplined routine that could have us going to the gym every day or running a certain amount of miles, we could acquire a trainer to help us on that path. But perhaps there is a key part of our workout routine that maybe we might not have taken into consideration and that is the rest day. This is basically a designated day where we don't go about our workout routine just spend the day for ourselves. Maybe such a thing isn't considered because we feel it is either being lazy or breaking training. But it turns out the opposite is true, actually, a rest day has advantages and can be important to our overall health and well being, here are some valid reasons why a rest day is an essential element to a workout plan.
Relaxes the Limbs and Muscles
Taking a rest day will give the muscles of your body time to heal-n-soothe. This will help reduce the amount of muscle strain that can develop from continuing to push through workouts with no rest days. Not only are the muscles an issue but continuing to push workouts can lead to other problems such as ligament tears and tissue damage. Allowing the body a day of rest will help it to deal with the stress already on the limbs.
Gives a Better Mental Outlook
A person's overall outlook would be better by taking a rest day from workouts. Why because it gives a person time to regroup, get their thoughts together, maybe spend time with family or friends. For that matter maybe do something else that they love to do such as a hobby that they put off because of their training program. A person can also catch up on their sleep, which is beneficial to both their mental and physical health. This helps a person's mental outlook and might even help them to be more motivated in their training program.
Benefits Your Work and Home Life
Taking a rest day can give you time to catch things up at work or to spend quality time with family. Think about this taking the time to work out means either putting something off at work or maybe not being there that much for your spouse or kids. Allowing a rest day helps you to reconnect with your life in general, be there for your co-workers to depend on, and most importantly be there for your family.
These are just some of the reasons as to why setting aside a rest day while following a workout routine is not only helpful but vital. Yes, there are those who think that in doing so we are messing up our workout routine, that we are slacking from the actual discipline that we set forward. But when it comes to a workout routine the truth is excess isn't always the best course of action. Our bodies need movement, yes, and it is important to stay the course in our training once we have started out, but we have to remember that the body needs rest as well. So, set a day on the calendar in which to take that needed rest day while following a workout routine. Understand this isn't about laziness but a needed element in achieving the opitimal benefits for our bodies. The key to any type of workout training program is to benefit our bodies not to do harm and scheduling a rest day will help us to do just that.
https://www.womenshealthmag.com/uk/fitness/a705624/when-to-take-a-rest-day/
https://www.acefitness.org/education-and-resources/lifestyle/blog/7176/8-reasons-to-take-a-rest-day
https://www.theactivetimes.com/why-rest-days-are-just-important-working-out
