Taking It Easy: How Rest Days Could Be Promoting A Better Workout Regime

Achieve Better Sleep By Incorporating Rest

When you over train, you could be doing more damage to your sleep pattern and habits than other factors. Constant exercise can leave you feeling restless, which is one of the top factors affecting you getting a good night’s rest whether you are traveling or even at home. Therefore, achieving the right balance between training and rest is crucial, since exercise has also been shown to promote good sleep and reset your body’s sleep cycle. So, while those who are regular exercisers have better quality of sleep, too intense of a workout regime can also aggravate symptoms of Restless Leg Syndrome. This further highlights the need for rest periods between workouts.

Better Mental Health Relies On A Balance Of Rest And Activity

Being healthy relates to more than being fit physically. Achieving optimum mental health is essential to both your motivation when working out and also to the results you achieve from a regime. Working out too intensely can lead to a mental burnout, and rest days allow you to reset your mind. Many studies have shown the positive effects that exercise can have on one’s mental health, including alleviating symptoms of depression and anxiety. However, a 2017 study published in Lancet Psychiatry showed that people that did moderate exercise (45 minutes sessions) achieved better mental health overall compared to those that committed to longer workouts. In addition, those that did 3-5 workouts weekly experienced a better impact on poor mental health compared to those who chose to workout more than 5 times each week.

Rest Is Needed For Your Muscle Recovery

According to the publication Recovery In Training: The Essential Ingredient (Len Kravtiz & Johnathan Mike), recovery is vital to the re-establishment of intramuscular blood flow for oxygen delivery. This leads to both the repair of your intramuscular pH and the return of intramuscular membrane potential. By giving your body the time it needs to recover, you are protecting yourself from further injury and actively allowing inflammation in your joints to subside. Sleep is also an important part of this process, particularly for those looking to build muscle, since your growth hormones increase during REM sleep.

Finally, taking rest days does not mean you should skip doing any activity. In fact, light activity such as short yoga sessions or walks can help your recovery. Swimming can also help you release any built up tension in your muscles from those intense sessions, and conditions your body to push itself further in your future workouts. So while it’s important to commit fiercely in the gym and on the field, rest days may be the glue that keeps it all together for body and mind alike.