taking a rest day off may not be as exciting as a workout day but it’s certainly is as important as a workout day, it can be difficult for a gym freak to take a day off, or a person who just established a routine, but there are times when it’s best to take a day off and rest, here are 5 times when you should rest.
IF YOU ARE UNDER THE WEATHER
Some of us can’t imagine ourselves in the gym during sick days and others don’t want to break their workout pattern but if you are under the weather you should go to the clinic/hospital and consult to a doctor not in the gym talking to the coach.
If you have a runny rainy nose, or sore throat you can exercise, but if you have a fever the exercise should be not even in your imagination because the effort you’ll be putting in while having the fever would not be beneficial because of the dehydration. You will just make yourself tired.
Also consider avoiding exercise if you feel shortness of breath, or if you have a severe cough, and wheezing.
Soreness
Soreness is completely normal, especially if you are a beginner or you recently have changed your routine, or you are pushing your limit, but if your routine is stable for months and soreness has remained longer than 72 hours it can be an over workout symptom.
Our muscle becomes sore because we make micro tears in our muscles during the exercise, and during the rest period our body heals them and grow them stronger, but if you didn’t give the body adequate rest, and train the body any way you will just do harm to your body and it give you signs like soreness etc. that you are doing something wrong and you should take some days or in some cases a week of.
Bear in mind that if you train more you’ll be just driving yourself to injury.
Tiredness
Though a little tiredness after a workout is completely normal however after some time you should feel good and energetic but if you are fatigue for days consider a day off
Sleep deprivation
just as I mentioned above (when one is under the weather he should go to the doctor’s clinic, not in the gym) similarly if you are sleep deprived the best place for you is a bed, not the gym,
see what we are doing here is we are prioritizing what is more important, so sleep and your health is way more important than a workout.
During the sleep deprivation period, our brain won’t function properly and our body will be tired already, if still, you force to do a workout your form will be incorrect and you won’t be able to make a good mind-muscle connection since they both are tired already,
Resting heart rate (RHR)
The normal resting heart rate of an adult is 60 to 100 beats a minute. during any vigorous activity, the alleviation of heart rate is completely normal, but if its rate is not going down during rest time then it’s a problem and you take some days off and consult a doctor.
How a rest day should be
A rest day is not necessarily mean you have to spend it on a couch, you can and should do some moderate activity like walking, cycling, etc. so that blood can flow more efficiently and provide all nutrients to muscles.
