

Rest days are necessary to help your mind and body recover from workouts. Your body has limits to how much stress it can endure before it breaks down and suffers injury. While an active recovery day requires doing low-intensity movement, taking a rest day, on the other hand - sometimes called passive recovery or total rest - means you will be taking the day entirely off from working out and not partake in any physical activity at all. Performing low-intensity activity helps remind you that listening to your body and dialing it down sometimes isn’t simply a cop-out - it’s vital in muscle recovery and improved performance.Įxamples of active rest include swimming, yoga/stretching, walking/light jogging, a leisurely row, and foam rolling.

Besides giving your muscles time to heal, research has shown this type of recovery can help clear the body of lactic acid - reducing your chances of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) while also increasing your muscles’ ability to endure intense exercise.Īdditionally, active recovery offers athletes that dread extremely sedentary days another viable option. When done right, active recovery offers a plethora of benefits. It’s also about getting your body moving when you’re outside the gym. Allowing your body to heal and repair its muscle tissues from intense training is not just about physical therapy sessions, maintaining a healthy diet, or improving your sleep habits. So, which one is right for you, and how do you go about it?Īn active recovery day is exactly what it sounds like - you’re taking time to recover from a vigorous workout session while remaining active. While these terms are often used interchangeably, they’re not the same thing! And importantly, they have their own unique impacts on your body as you move toward your fitness goals. But did you know that there are different kinds of rest? Athletes will sometimes debate between active recovery vs a rest day. American Council on Exercise.If you’re reading this, then you likely already know how important rest is to making progress in the gym. Overtraining: 9 signs of overtraining to look out for. The impact of sleep and circadian disturbance on hormones and metabolism. Effects of sleep deprivation on acute skeletal muscle recovery after exercise.

Role of nutrition in performance enhancement and postexercise recovery. American Council on Exercise.īeck KL, Thomson JS, Swift RJ, von Hurst PR. active recovery: Which is more effective?. Body composition, metabolism, sleep, psychological eating patterns of overtraining syndrome: results of the EROS study (EROS-PROFILE). Symptoms of overtraining in resistance exercise: international cross-sectional survey. Grandou C, Wallace L, Coutts A, Bell L, Impellizzeri F.
Recovery days how to#
How to select the right rest intervals and post-training recovery for your clients. American Council on Exercise.īob Murray, Christine Rosenbloom, Fundamentals of glycogen metabolism for coaches and athletes, Nutrition Reviews, Volume 76, Issue 4, April 2018, Pages 243–259,doi:10.1093/nutrit/nuy001 Effects of different between test rest intervals in reproducibility of the 10-repetition maximum load test: A pilot study with recreationally resistance trained men. Monteiro ER, Vingren JL, Corrêa Neto VG, Neves EB, Steele J, Novaes JS.
