Give it a rest!
Taking time for recovery is an important part of keeping fit
Exercising hard every day might seem like the best way to maintain physical fitness.
But exercise physiologists say it’s important to let the body rest and recover for the best results at keeping fit and maintaining peak performance. That includes taking days off from workouts, although not necessarily just “vegging out” or otherwise avoiding activity.
“Designated rest days help athletes recover and heal after training and competitions,” according to an article from Colorado-based UC Health medical network. “Rest and recovery is all about giving the body time to repair, rebuild, and strengthen itself between workouts. “
Michigan State University says something similar, that rest is when the body replenishes muscle glycogen (energy stores) and undergoes tissue repair.
Recovery for older adults
The American College of Sports Medicine has some advice specifically for older adults.
“While post-workout recovery may look a little different in your 50s and 60s than it did in your 20s and 30s, this shift allows you to be strategic and intentional before, during, and after exercise,” according to an article on the ACSM website. “The key is taking a well-rounded approach to recovery through nutrition, hydration, sleep, and activity.”
Recovery is important because strenuous exercise damages muscle fiber, but in a way that is actually beneficial over time. As the ACSM describes it:
Exercise puts beneficial stress on the body. It creates microscopic tears in the muscle, and your body repairs this damage to build back stronger.
Muscle soreness during this recovery is common, according to Johns Hopkins Medical Center. Excessive soreness, however, could be a sign of overdoing it, or allowing inadequate recovery, or both.
An important aspect is that rest does not equate to inactivity, which may be why recovery is the more appropriate term.
“Movement is always a part of recovery,” Johns Hopkins notes. “The catchphrase commonly used in the sports medicine and rehabilitation world is, ‘Motion is lotion.’”
ACSM adds that “Active recovery — lower impact activities that get your blood flowing without excess strain — helps to enable recovery after heavy training days.”
The can take the form of dynamic stretching, which UC Health says activates the neuromuscular system and increases blood flow to muscles.
Nutrition, hydration and sleep are also part of effective recovery. Protein consumption after a workout provides nutrients necessary for muscle repair. Drinking water both before and after exercising is important to avoid dehydration. Sleep is a key factor in giving the body an opportunity to repair and rejuvenate itself.
As ACSM summarizes it: “Prioritizing nutrition, hydration, sleep, and active recovery enables you to train hard and perform well.”
So don’t feel a need to push it every day. Recovery should be a part of any fitness routine.
Rest doesn't just repair muscle, it also gives the nervous system time to consolidate what it just learned in the previous session. A lesson done twice with a break between often lands more clearly than the same lesson done twice back to back.
Hi Jack, this is something I have to talk students out of constantly. They think a rest day means they're falling behind, so they play pickleball five or six days a week and wonder why their reset shot falls apart late in matches.
Motion is lotion fits perfectly, a light walk or some dynamic stretching on an off day beats sitting completely still, but it's still a different day than a hard practice or match.
Do you find people resist full rest days more than they resist the workouts themselves?