Whilst regular workouts and daily activity is necessary to stay healthy, taking rest is also equally important.
We often overlook rest days thinking the more we exert our body, the faster will we reach our goals. But we ignore the fact that rest days also are a critical part of your fitness journey.
So let’s see why are rest days so important.
1. They help preventing muscle fatigue : Exercise induced fatigue is real. When you workout, you are depleting the glycogen levels in your muscle. Even when you aren’t working out, your muscles use glycogen to function. If your body is not given enough time to replenish these levels, it can lead to muscle fatigue and soreness.
2. Reduce risk of injury : When you are using the same muscles or the same assisting muscles for a prolonged duration, it can lead to an overuse injury. Excessive workout regimes can lead to such injuries. Even if you think you are actually pushing yourself to get better, stronger, fitter, it is doing the opposite to your body. Overtraining will decrease your performance. In addition to this, overtraining can lead to a burnout. Want to avoid all of this? REST. Rest days prevent fatigue and increase your energy making sure your body is ready to conquer the next workout.
3. Gives time for recovery : To put it in simple words, if your body does not recover from on e workout, it is not going to be ready for the next. Taking a rest day does not mean you are lazy. In fact, you are reaping all the benefits of your workouts during your rest day. Exercising causes microscopic tears in your muscle tissue. Taking appropriate rests helps the body to repair these tears better. And like we mentioned before, rest days also gives your body time to replenish its glycogen reserves which are broken down and used for fuel during your workouts.
4. They help in optimising and improving your performance : Sufficient recovery time is important to optimise your performance. If your muscles are constantly overtrained, over time you will notice that not only has your progress stopped, but you are also finding yourself unable to finish your usual workout. In addition to these physical challenges, you will also feel mentally fatigued. You won’t be able to push yourself to run that extra km, finish that extra rep. All this can be avoided if you take enough rest time.
Whether you are a pro athlete, a newbie at the gym or a seasoned weight-lifter, don’t forget to take that rest day. Your body needs it.
Comments