Hybrid Training
Exercising daily is a habit that is encouraged. But when it comes to training, more isn’t always better. Better is better. Rest days are equally as important as training. In fact, recovery days should always be included in your training program.
So, what are the benefits of rest days? How often should they be scheduled? And, what should you do on a rest day?
Want to take the guesswork out of your training? Join one of our hybrid training programs.
1. Strength and muscle gains
Did you know that rest days are where the magic happens? When you lift weights, run, or do other physical activity, you are putting stress and load on your muscles and cardiovascular system, respectively. When you lift weights, you are quite literally tearing your muscle fibers. In order to repair your muscle fibers, you need to feed them, hydrate them, and rest them. [Insert gains!] Rest days are essential for your body to adapt to stimulus, get stronger, and build muscle.
2. Manage training volume/injury prevention
As I mentioned earlier, more isn’t always better. Better is better. Regardless of your goals, hybrid training programs should have rest days incorporated into your schedule. In order to manage training volume throughout the weeks, months, and years, rest days are crucial. This is especially important for those who tend to sign up for multiple races and/or lifting competitions within a season or year. Rest days can help prevent overtraining, manage recovery, and minimize the risk of overuse injuries that can occur both physically and mentally.
3. Improved performance
If rest days are mentally challenging or fairly new to you, understand that it’s a key component to enhancing your performance. By allowing your body time to repair and recover, you will feel better and more prepared for your next session. This alone can improve your physical and mental performance. A scheduled rest day can make you feel stoked to get back to your training the next day.
4. Enhanced quality of sleep
You might be thinking, “wait, I thought exercise improves sleep?”. You are correct! It does, as long as training volume is managed. Exercise is a stressor. A positive stressor when approached appropriately, but it is still a stressor regardless. Similarly to how your muscles know load, not weight, your body knows stress (cortisol in this case), not “oh, this is stress from exercise, not stress from work”. Of course, one benefits your muscles and cardiovascular system more than the other, but, again, stress is still stress. By taking a rest day, you are encouraging your body to manage exercise volume and frequency, and keep hormones balanced, which leads to improved sleep.
5. Sustainability
Whether you have signed up for a half marathon or an ultramarathon, you want to be able to be strong, agile, and mobile for the long haul, right? Right. Scheduling rest days allows you to train more consistently for the long run. Gone are the days of the all or nothing mindset where you train hard for x amount of days or weeks in a row without resting, only to crash and burn because rest days were avoided. Regularly programmed rest days set you up for success so you can keep training month after month and year after year for the long term.
In true coaching manner, my answer is: it depends. How often you take a rest day completely depends on your goals, experience, and training availability.
Your goals will impact how many or how often you take a day off from training. Someone who has a goal of running their third marathon will likely have a different strategy and approach than someone who wants to stay fit for life in general and workout sustainably. With performance goals, I generally recommend resting for 1 day per week or 1 day per 10 days at the absolute minimum. Some hybrid athletes do better by scheduling 2 rest days per week (I am one of those people) to allow for more recovery in between sessions. Of course, some of you may have more than 2 days of rest scheduled per week based on training availability. In general, I recommend 4 days of physical activity per week to support a hybrid training approach, as well as meet and exceed the CDC activity guidelines. Then this would leave you with 3 days of rest per week.
This leads us right into experience. As your fitness age and training experience increases over time, you may be able to adapt to a higher frequency of workouts and recover more efficiently in between sessions. For example, a person who goes from training 0-2x/week to 3-5x/week will need some time to adapt not only in the realm of musculature or cardio, but also with fueling, stress management, and sleep. As you learn more about your body and what works for you, you may not require as many rest days as you did when you first started working out.
Your training availability and schedule will directly impact how many rest days you should take. Yes, if you have 4 days available to workout each week, then 3 days of rest are programmed as well, but it goes beyond the regular scheduling. For example, if you typically take 1 rest day per week and know you are going to be traveling next week, it may make more sense to cram all of your sessions in before you travel and bump your rest day to day 10 to accommodate your schedule. As you gain experience as a lifter and runner, you will learn how to adapt to your calendar and training and be able to identify when to schedule your rest days and at what frequency. This is done for you when you join one of our hybrid training programs.
Were you thinking about veggin’ out watching tv for your rest day? Although I can see why you might think a rest day means laying around on the couch all day, I don’t recommend it. Of course, there is a time and a place for lounging and watching your newest show, but getting some sort of light movement in each day is a healthy suggestion. Yes, you can do both! In fact, moving your body on your rest day can help get the blood flowing, mitigate any soreness or DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) you are experiencing post-workout, and keep you mobile. Remember: motion is lotion.
If you are looking for some trainer-approved rest day activities, here’s a list:
As for what I recommend avoiding on rest days… well, there may be some push back on a few of these items. Some athletes believe that running every day is a must, or that they are unwilling to break their running streak for a rest day. I can understand why someone with a lot of running experience may feel this way since they have built up their resilience, but 3 easy miles is still additional stress. If it came down to needing a few more miles logged for the week, I would suggest adding mileage to other days to save yourself a full day of rest.
I stand by my recommendation of avoiding the following activities on rest days:
My rule of thumb is: if it’s an activity option on your fitness watch (aside from walking or yoga), it is not a rest day.
As an active person, I can understand how rest days can be mentally hard. If you love an activity, like lifting or running, no wonder you want to do it as frequently as possible. When you have a rest day, it can feel like you are not doing enough, not progressing, or even falling behind. But truthfully, scheduling regular rest days will positively impact your training, your performance, and your overall progress. Rest days are an integral part of an exercise program and must be observed if you want to continue training for a goal and for life.
Leave the programming to us by joining one of our hybrid training programs.
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