No rest no gain

Why Taking A Day Off Can Make You Stronger

Those of us who train hard, working towards particular goals (a race, a game, a competition) are often guilty of taking too little rest. So does it matter? We investigate the effects of overtraining.

When you're committed to working out, it's easy to overdo it - if three workouts are good, then six must be twice as good, right? The reality is that high intensity exercise six (or seven!) days a week can ultimately lead to burnout, boredom and injury.

Rest is crucial for you to make progress and perform at your maximum - a day or two off each week allows muscles, tendons and ligaments time to repair. And for body builders (or anyone trying to add muscle mass) remember the old saying - growth occurs during rest, not during workouts.

Getting enough rest also has major health benefits. Research shows that your immune system is at risk if you over-train. Those most at risk of over-training are endurance athletes, or those who combine strength training with endurance training - triathletes, for example, are highly vulnerable to this.

So is there any way of knowing if you're pushing too hard? Fortunately there are some clear indications, messages that your body sends to tell you to back off.

Signs of overtraining

If you are training hard, it's crucial to listen to the feedback from your body. There are clear warning signs if you are overtraining:

• An increase in resting heart rate of around 10%, or about 5 beats per minute above your normal rate, is a clear indication that you are over trained, sick, or both!
• Reaching training heart rate zone much sooner into a training period than usual
• Increased time for heart rate to recover between intervals
• The inability to make progress in fitness goals
• Extreme fatigue, depression or lack of enthusiasm for training
• Regular injuries or sickness

Rest means many different things. One important component of rest is sleep.

There are numerous benefits associated with getting sufficient sleep. Research has shown that if you get less than eight hours of sleep a night, your alertness, productivity, creativity, and general health are all affected.

In addition, researchers have found that people who sleep less than eight hours per day are more likely to gain weight (fat) than those who get a full night's sleep.

Like your workouts and your diet, rest is something you have to plan for.

 

Getting enough rest ? the plan

It is essential that you take the time to build appropriate rest periods into your schedule, planned in the same way that you plan your workouts.

Not only do you need to be sure to get enough sleep (athletes need at least 8 hours per night to give the body time to recover day to day), you also need to consider the following:

• Schedule one or two days off per week
• Alternate hard and easy days (or for triathletes, two hard, one easy)
• Plan a monthly training cycle of three hard weeks followed by one easy week (easy meaning 50% of training volume)
• Cycling your training volume through the year (periodization) so that you have periods of higher and lower volume
• Planning one month per year of very low, recovery training (typically after your season ends)

The bottom line is that to perform at your maximum when you really need to (e.g. in competition) you need to get plenty of sleep and schedule days off - you'll not only feel better, you'll achieve your workout goals sooner, and perform better in competition