There are a few types of gym-goers and athletes: those who take too many rest days, those who take a day off but usually feel guilty, team #NoDaysOff, and (the smart ones) who strategically plan rest days into their training schedule.
Whatever category you fall into (but especially if you’ve ever felt guilty about taking a rest day or have a “no days off” mentality) – this article is for you!
Today, we will explain exactly why your body needs rest days, the signs you are overdoing it and need to take a day off, how to incorporate rest days into your training schedule, the difference between active and passive rest, the best activities for recovery days, and more!
Why Your Body Needs Rest Days
For many, especially those with significant weight to lose, lofty “gains” goals, and competitors or athletes, it can be a mental struggle to take a rest day. It is common to get it stuck in your head that taking a day off will set you back, derail motivation, or make you lose momentum.
There is even an entire culture that supports the mentality that you should train every day. You’ve probably seen the hashtag #TeamNoDaysOff on social media or encountered challenges online that push you to train hard every day without taking a day off.
It’s admirable to be dedicated to training. However, there is a big difference between consistency and going overboard. Too much exercise without sufficient recovery (even if you aren’t pushing yourself to the limit) can hinder your progress and, in some cases, lead to fat gain, muscle loss, and health issues.
Think about it this way… what would happen if you worked your job seven days a week with no vacation or days off? You’d get “burnout,” and productivity would plummet. How about if you constantly prioritized everyone else’s needs 24/7 without taking time for yourself? You’d feel drained, and your overall happiness and connections with others might suffer.
The same can happen with exercise. More is not better. Not allowing for proper recovery will eventually backfire. Rest days are crucial for recovery and overall well-being. They allow your body to repair itself and prevent burnout so you can continue progressing.
Understanding Overtraining Syndrome
Let’s talk about what actually happens when you push too hard without giving yourself a breather, overtraining syndrome.
This isn’t just about feeling a little tired after a tough workout. Overtraining syndrome is what happens when you consistently do too much with too little rest. Essentially, your body and mind get stuck in “go” mode without a chance to recover.
From a physiological standpoint, your nervous system, which is responsible for everything from revving you up to calming you down, begins to short-circuit. When you never give your body time to reset, stress hormones like cortisol stay elevated. This leaves your systems frazzled, making workouts that were once easy suddenly feel like climbing Everest in flip-flops.
Common symptoms of overtraining syndrome include:
- Persistent fatigue, even after a full night’s sleep
- Decreased performance (think: slower progress, heavier weights feeling impossibly heavy)
- Troublesome sleep patterns or insomnia
- Mood changes like irritability, anxiety, and low motivation
- Aches, pains, and frequent “mystery” injuries
And it’s not just your muscles that suffer, your mental health and motivation can take a hit, too. Instead of feeling energized, you’ll feel drained, both physically and emotionally. The whole idea is to train smarter, not harder: rest days are your secret weapon for long-term gains and sanity.
Rest Days Foster Lasting, Sustainable Fitness Habits
We all know that life isn’t always predictable, work deadlines, family obligations, or just a bad night’s sleep can throw a wrench in your best-laid fitness plans. If you try to schedule an intense workout every single day, you’ll likely find yourself frustrated when those inevitable curveballs pop up.
Here’s where rest days become your secret weapon for consistency. Incorporating rest days gives your schedule wiggle room. Instead of rearranging your entire week for a missed cardio session or feeling like a single skipped gym day means failure, you can simply swap training and rest days as needed. This freedom allows you to build your workouts around your life, not the other way around.
Even better, this more flexible approach is the recipe for long-term success. You’re not burning out or getting discouraged by rigid routines. Instead, you’re building a workout habit that actually fits your real-world lifestyle, one you’re much more likely to stick with for months, years, and maybe even decades. That’s how taking rest seriously pays off, not just in recovery, but in creating healthy habits you can truly maintain.
Benefits of Rest Days
The research on taking rest days is clear. Muscles need rest to recover and grow. Furthermore, studies repeatedly prove that overtraining can destroy your metabolism and hormones, especially when undereating, which can lead to weight gain, fatigue, and even more serious health issues.
For more on proper nutrition for muscle gain, read “Nutrition for Muscle Gain: What to Eat Before and After Workouts.
Overtraining doesn’t only result in physical issues. There are mental drawbacks to not taking rest days. We know, we know, for many people reading this, working out and cardio is therapy. We won’t argue that. Physical activity is incredibly therapeutic and beneficial for mental health.
However, when taken to extremes without proper recovery, it can become counterproductive and lead to burnout, lack of motivation, and an unhealthy relationship with exercise.
Here are some benefits of rest days:
Repairs and Builds Muscles
Exercise creates microscopic tears in muscle tissue, which trigger the muscle-building process. However, these tears need to be repaired before you push your muscles again; otherwise, your muscles will struggle to grow.
Rest days allow these tears to heal and your muscles to rebuild stronger, ensuring you continue to progress in building quality lean muscle mass.
Prevents Muscle Fatigue and Reduces Soreness
We’ve all been there… barely able to walk or sit after a grueling leg day. While some soreness is part of the muscle-building process, taking strategic rest days can ease that discomfort and speed up recovery.
Giving your muscles a break helps them repair more effectively and reduces the weakness
and intense soreness you often feel after a workout.
Prevents Plateaus
If you can’t lift any heavier, aren’t building more muscle, or the scale won’t budge, it might not be because you aren’t doing enough; it is likely because you are doing too much.
Constantly pushing yourself without rest days is a surefire way to stall progress. You’ve gotta give yourself regular breaks that allow your body to recover and adapt. If not, you’ll hit a plateau where progress stops (or possibly even go in reverse and gain body fat weight or lose muscle).
Enhanced Performance and Strength
Remember, the goal is always to work smarter, not necessarily harder. Pushing yourself every single day without taking a rest day will eventually affect your performance and strength. You might show up, but your workouts won’t be as effective.
Rest days give your body the recovery it needs to go all out the next time you exercise. This means you will burn more calories, pump out more reps, and lift heavier weights, making each gym session more productive and helping you achieve your goals faster.
Reduces Risk of Injury
Muscle fatigue from overtraining can lead to a higher risk of injuries. Without adequate rest, your muscles and joints don’t get the time they need to recover and adapt, making them more vulnerable to overuse injuries.
Taking regular breaks gives your body the chance to repair and strengthen, reducing the likelihood of injuries and ensuring you can continue training safely and effectively.
Better Sleep
Sleep plays a crucial role in muscle recovery. During deep sleep, your body releases growth hormones essential for muscle repair and growth. Without adequate sleep, this recovery process is compromised, leading to slower progress and increased fatigue.
Overtraining can disrupt your sleep patterns, making it harder to reach these restorative stages. By allowing your body to recover through proper rest days, you support better sleep quality, enhancing muscle recovery and overall health.
Improved Metabolic Health
Yes, exercising boosts your metabolism, but over-exercising can lead to metabolic dysfunction, especially when combined with inadequate nutrition. This includes disruptions in blood sugar levels, insulin sensitivity, and a slower metabolism. The result? Difficulty losing weight, potential fat gain, and even muscle loss.
Regular rest days are vital to preventing these issues. They provide essential downtime for your body to recover from intense exercise, allowing metabolic processes to recalibrate. This improves blood sugar control, insulin sensitivity, and a more efficient metabolism.
Hormone Regulation
Regular physical activity helps balance hormones that influence weight. However, intense training without sufficient rest can do the opposite and disrupt hormonal balance.
The stress hormone cortisol is most commonly affected. Overtraining can lead to elevated cortisol levels, which can negatively impact other hormones involved in metabolism, mood, and muscle growth.
Additionally, overtraining can lead to thyroid issues and imbalances in sex hormones such as testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone. If even one of these hormones is out of balance, it can lead to problems such as reduced muscle growth, mood swings, fatigue, and issues with weight management.
Exercise is very beneficial for hormone health, but it could have the opposite effect without proper rest. Incorporating rest days helps your body recover and regulate hormone levels.
Mental Recovery
There is a reason why many people say the gym is therapy. Exercise is one of the best things you can do to lower stress and improve your overall mental health. However, burnout can occur if you never take rest days and allow for mental recovery.
Rest days offer a mental break from the grind, which can actually boost motivation and prevent more serious compulsive exercise disorders.
Menstrual Cycles and the Need for Rest Days
Let’s talk about another important reason to listen to your body: your menstrual cycle. During your period, both estrogen and progesterone take a nosedive, which often leads to feeling more sluggish or low-energy. If the idea of working out during this time feels like dragging yourself through mud, you’re not alone.
Some days, a gentle workout might be all you need, but on others, it’s perfectly okay (and even beneficial) to grant yourself an extra rest day. Prioritizing rest can help your body reset and bounce back stronger, ready for your next sweat session once hormones begin to rebalance.
Remember, recovery is about honoring all the ways your body tells you to slow down. If your energy tanks during your cycle, it could be your body’s way of telling you to hit pause, recharge, and return to training with full force.
Signs You Need a Rest Day
The goal is to strategically incorporate rest days so your body never has a chance to tell you it needs to slow down. However, even with regular rest days, there are times when you might need additional time away from training.
It’s important to listen to your body and recognize when it needs a break. Here are some signs that you might need a rest day, or perhaps even a few:
Persistent Fatigue
If you’re feeling unusually tired despite getting enough sleep, it might be a sign that your body needs a break. Persistent fatigue can affect your performance and motivation.
Muscle Soreness
Lingering muscle soreness or stiffness that doesn’t go away with regular stretching or warm-up exercises can indicate that your muscles need extra time to recover.
Decreased Performance
If you notice a decline in your strength, endurance, or overall performance in the gym, it could be a result of overtraining and a sign that you need a rest day or two.
Irritability or Mood Swings
Frequent mood swings or irritability can be signs of mental burnout from overtraining. Taking a rest day can help restore your mental well-being.
Sleep Disturbances
Struggling to fall asleep or experiencing poor sleep quality can be linked to overtraining. Rest days support better sleep and overall recovery.
Injuries
Frequent or recurring aches, pains, or minor injuries might suggest that your body isn’t getting enough recovery time. Minor aches and pains might not seem significant enough to warrant a rest day, but ignoring them can increase your risk of more serious injuries.
Don’t risk it. If something feels off, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Take as many rest days as needed to allow any “minor” aches or pains to go away. Otherwise, you could end up making the issue worse and be out of the gym for a long time.
Types of Rest Days
A rest day doesn’t have to mean an off day from all physical activity. There are different types of rest days. Which one you choose depends on your fitness level, recovery needs, and personal goals. Here are the two main types:
Passive Rest Days
Passive rest days involve complete rest, where you avoid any structured exercise. This type of rest is needed when you need full recovery from intense training as it allows your muscles and body to completely recuperate without additional strain.
Passive rest should be incorporated as needed, especially if you are experiencing any of the abovementioned signs that your body needs some time to recover properly.
Active Rest Days
Active rest days involve low-intensity activities that promote recovery without putting additional stress on your body. Examples of active rest would be light walking, stretching, yoga, or a very moderate hike.
This approach is beneficial because it helps maintain mobility and blood circulation, keeps N.E.A.T levels up, and gives your body a break and time to recover from high-intensity workouts.
Should You Remain Active on Rest Days?
Most people benefit from incorporating both passive and active recovery days into their workout schedule. The intensity of your recent workouts, your fitness goals, and whether or not you are showing signs of overtraining are all factors to consider when determining how active you should be on a rest day.
There is a time and place when a complete off day is in order. If you are sick or showing any signs of overtraining, you should probably focus solely on rest. However, in most cases, a rest day doesn’t have to mean an off day from being active.
You can choose to have an active recovery day. Just remember, these activities should not tax your body in any way. Only perform very low-impact activities that allow your body to recover properly.
Low-Impact Activities for Rest Days
Here are a few ways you can remain active on rest days that won’t put added stress on your body:
- Walking
- Stretching
- Yoga
- Low-intensity swimming
- A leisurely hike
- A fun activity (dancing, roller skating, yard games, bowling, a slow bike ride, etc.)
How to Plan Your Workout Week with Rest Days
There isn’t much scientific data on whether or not your body would benefit most from taking consecutive (back-to-back) or non-consecutive rest days. It seems most studies believe that both methods are equally effective.
Most trainers and fitness experts agree how you plan your rest days is highly individual. When you take your rest days depends on your workout split, personal schedule, fitness level, and what your body is telling you.
How Many Rest Days Should You Take Each Week?
There’s no universal answer, how many rest days you need in a week is unique to you, just like that go-to playlist that somehow powers you through every cardio session. Your optimal number of rest days depends on several factors, including:
- The intensity and duration of your workouts
- Your current fitness level and goals
- Age and recovery speed
- Your personal schedule
- Hormonal fluctuations and individual health considerations
For most people aiming for overall health and well-being, taking two to three rest days per week is generally a safe bet. However, newcomers to exercise (or anyone ramping up a new routine) may benefit from more frequent rest as their bodies adjust to new demands.
And don’t forget to listen to your body; some weeks you might need an unscheduled rest day. For example, if you’re feeling especially tired during certain times of the month, or if life throws you extra stress, it’s perfectly okay to back off and let your body catch up. Missing a workout or two in favor of recovery might actually help you push harder when you return, rather than burn you out.
You can also structure your week to naturally include active recovery or lighter days following especially tough training sessions. Alternating workout focuses, like splitting strength training between upper and lower body, lets one set of muscles rest while another works.
If you have any signs of overtraining or just feel like you need a recovery day, even if you hadn’t “planned” for it, you should take a rest day anyway. Otherwise, when planning rest days, you should consider the following:
Your Workout Split
First, assess how you will divide your training sessions for the week. For instance, if you follow a body part split, you could do three days on, two days off, and repeat. If you follow a full-body workout plan, you should probably do one day on, two days off, and repeat. Just remember to allow for enough recovery time before you hit a body part again.
Your Schedule
You should also consider your personal and professional life. For many, the weekend is the best time for rest days because it allows for family time, social activities, or simply relaxing without the pressure of fitting in a workout.
However, weekdays might be unpredictable and chaotic for others, so weekends might be when they have the most free time and can dedicate longer periods to more intense workouts.
For example, if you know Wednesdays are particularly hectic, planning a rest day on Wednesday can help you manage stress and keep your energy levels up for the remainder of the week.
Your Fitness Level
Your current fitness level should also influence your rest day planning. Beginners may need more frequent rest days as their bodies adapt to being more active, while more experienced athletes might handle more intense workout schedules with fewer rest days.
However, even seasoned gym-goers and athletes need to prioritize rest to prevent overtraining and injury. Adjust your rest days based on how your body responds to your workouts, and always take an extra rest day if you feel you need it.
How to Make the Most of Your Rest Days
Taking a rest day doesn’t mean you’re being lazy or wasting time, it’s an essential part of recovery and growth. Instead of feeling like you’re missing out on a workout, use the time you would typically spend in the gym to focus on other areas of your health and well-being.
Here are some ideas for how to make the most of your rest days:
Focus on Mobility
Use the time you would train to do some flexibility and mobility exercises. This is something you should be doing regularly anyway for mobility and to prevent injury. Doing it on a rest day is an added bonus that will further help your muscles recover.
Meal Prep
Hopefully, you aren’t relying on exercise alone to reach your goals. As they say, abs are made in the kitchen! The best way to ensure you are eating healthy meals is to meal prep a couple of times each week. Use your rest days to plan, grocery shop, and prepare meals.
Sleep In/Go to Bed Early
Sleep should always be a priority, but on rest days, use the time you’d usually wake up to do cardio or the hour in the evening when you typically lift to sleep in and go to bed early! The extra hour or two of z’s will do your body good!
Get a Massage
A massage is one of the best things you can do for your body on a rest day. Treat yourself to some well-deserved relaxation and muscle recovery!
Just Relax
Take a nap, watch a movie, read a book, journal, or engage in other activities that help you unwind.
Conclusion
We know it sounds counterintuitive to skip the gym when you have goals to reach, but you need to take rest days seriously. Rest days are just as important as training days. Without them, it will be much harder to reach your fitness goals.
You do not need to rain every single day! Instead, focus on maximizing your gym time. Schedule time to rest, otherwise you might find yourself with an injury, illness, or burnout, which WILL set you back!
Want more fitness, health, and wellness tips? Check out our other articles to keep your mind and body on the right track.
