Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Tuesday: The importance of REST DAYS

Tuesday September 8th, 2009: REST DAY

I am v.v.very sore from my workouts the past few days so today is much needed rest day for me! Rest days however are super important for everyone who works out regularly. They allow ample time for your muscles to recover, rebuild and repair themselves. Psychologically, rest days are also really important to help you fit in a balance of fitness into your everyday life. Even competitive athletes need rest for both physical and psychological reasons. In the worst cases, not having enough rest days can cause you to overtrain, which can lead to injuries and can be hard to recover from. Symptoms of overtraining include fatigue, moodiness, lack of interest in exercise, chronic muscle or joint soreness, insomnia, decreased appetite, headaches, drop in exercise performance, depression, a compulsive need to exercise and decrease in immunity.

Obviously overtraining doesn't sound like fun--which is exactly why I build rest days into my normal exercise plan. So, if you are working out consistently and find yourself hating or dreading the gym, feeling sore, cranky and tired... give yourself a day off!

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