I’m all about hammering it out in the gym for as long as it takes me to exhaust every seed of energy that I have in my being. I will lift until my arms are too weak to even lift my water bottle. I’ll crunch until a small chuckle will send pain shooting thru me so bad that I will avoid being around anyone or anything funny. Yes, that’s how I roll when I workout. I do that because I know that at some point I’m going to do the most important thing that I can do for my body. Give it a rest..
Please ~ Please ~ PLEASE, for your own safety, take time where you do ZERO exercise. On your rest day (s) I recommend scheduling some sort of deep tissue massage, and or soaking in the tub with your favorite relaxing bath salt. Or, hit the whirlpool at your gym. Really pamper your body because, if you’re on your work out game like you SHOULD be, then you’ve put it thru HELL. Let your rest days be your extra push to really “bring it” in the gym (or however you exercise). I teach Zumba and it’s very taxing on my feet so at least once a week, I have an appointment to have reflexology done on my feet and I even use some extra relaxing socks and foot lotions! You can get some really good deals at local massage schools by the students who need people to practice on. My goodness I have had some of my BEST massages from students! When I was in PT school, the other part of the building housed a massage therapist program and I was ALWAYS volunteering for them to practice some new technique!
DO NOT feel guilty on your rest day if you have stuck to your exercise schedule. You have earned it and your body needs the rest and pampering. Recovery is probably more important than the exercise itself because over exertion WILL set you up for an injury. If you get hurt then guess what? You can’t exercise. If you can’t exercise then guess what? It’s going to be that much harder, if not impossible, to maintain your hard work thus far. Is it worth the risk to NOT rest? I don’t think so.
Your rest day should NOT be your cheat day. You won’t be doing anything to help offset the extra calories you will consume from your cheat (s) Instead, this needs to be a day when you make extra sure to eat nutritious foods and drink lots of plain water. Give your muscles a rest and your stomach a break if you’ve fallen off the wagon a time or 2 or 3….
Do not fool yourself into thinking that skipping your rest days is giving you some kind of a bonus in your exercise routine. At some point, the lack of rest will catch up to you. You DO NOT want to see that point…
How often you rest, depends on how often you exercise to begin with. I’m a machine lately so I only rest 1 day a week but when my studio opens I’m sure I’ll increase the rest days so as not to wind up in someone’s ER. In the beginning, I think it’s a good idea to rest every other day until your body shows that it can handle fewer rest days. If you are feeling pain and or sheer exhaustion please take time to fully recover. Your body knows better than you what it needs so please listen to it.
Having a banging body is not the biz if all you can do is rock a hospital gown...
Chill out so you can work out!
~Mizcardio4lyf~
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