While we all know how easy it is to fit a HIIT session into your daily routine, that becomes much harder, logistically and psychologically, if you're trying to do it every day of the week. Absence makes the mojo grow stronger.Ī survey of over 2,000 people found that 33 per cent who don't exercise say it's because they don't have the time. Mini breaks keep your motivation running on overdrive, preventing exercise from becoming a chore. Studies have shown a lack of sleep can result in low motivation to take part in leisure activities you usually enjoy, and failing to take mental breaks to recover from exercise can have a similar effect. Your muscles will be less sore and fatigued and, instead of just going through the motions, you'll be able to give your next workout the effort it needs to get results. Taking time off gives your body and mind time to reset, recharge and recover. Then, just 20 seconds later, you're ready to go hard and attack it again. You've just finished 30 seconds of flat-out exercise in your HIIT session and swear you couldn't do another evil burpee again, ever. Workouts can feel much harder than they used to and you may struggle to do exercises you found fairly straightforward before. This can leave you feeling constantly tired and drained. If you're not taking the time you need to rest and recover, then the constant stress of exercise can mess with your system's natural responses. Your central nervous system is made up of different parts including the sympathetic nervous system - which triggers fight or flight mode - and the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps calm your body down again. Exercise releases stress hormones and, just as working long hours with no days off can negatively impact your health, too much exercise without enough rest can lead to burnout.Īlso known as overtraining syndrome, burning out can affect your central nervous system, throwing everything out of whack. Train too much without resting and you could see your fitness progress grind to a halt or even go into reverse. So if you want to avoid weeks or even months of being unable to train, make sure you give yourself sufficient time to rest. A recent study found that overuse injuries were the most common types of injury in elite athletics, leading to at least three weeks out of training for affected athletes. "Increasing the amount of training you're doing or upping the intensity, without giving your body enough time to rest and recover, is a common cause of injuries like stress fractures and tendinopathies," says Jordane. You're also at risk of overuse injuries as you constantly stress and strain the body and don't allow it the necessary time to repair itself. Working out when your body and mind are tired means you're more likely to have bad form, trip or stumble. If you skip rest days, it could lead to longer spells out through injury. When you rest, your muscles start to heal and grow back stronger, meaning you'll be able to do the same workout with less effort in the future. "Muscle is developed in its 'repair phase', when you're resting and refuelling," says Jordane.Įvery time you work out you create microscopic tears in your muscle tissues. While you may think fitness gains are only made when you're beasting yourself during a sweat session, rest is just as important if you want to hit your workout goals. Here's everything you need to know about rest and recovery. But how many rest days should you take, what are the benefits and do you need to spend all day on the sofa with the remote? In short, if you want to enjoy sustained progress, you're going to need to put your feet up every now and again. Rest also gives your body time to adapt to your training and grow stronger and fitter, so you'll be better placed to make the next workout count than if you skip the recovery period. They stop you burning out and losing your mojo, and ensure you're ready and able to give your next session your all. Rest days allow your body - and your mind - time to recover from workouts. If you don't factor rest days into your training regimen, your performance can suffer, too," she warns. "I see so many people with overuse injuries because they're training frequently and not taking enough time to rest. "Rest days are massively underrated," says Jordane Zammit Tabona, Director and Lead Physio at Function360. While it's great that you want to work out harder and more often, time out is a vital part of any exercise plan and even professional athletes schedule rest time and easy sessions into their weekly training. Exercise, like most things in life, is all about balance. More workouts can only be a good thing, right? After all, you're seeing great progress, your energy levels are through the roof and every session leaves you buzzing. When you're in the training zone and really loving your workouts, it's tempting to skip rest days.
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