Exercise is great to stay healthy and fit, and who doesn’t like that? Many people would probably say that they would love to stay healthy and fit, but most don’t know how to do it properly. They might say well I have to workout every single day in order to get the results I want, but that is not the case. Everyone wants to be healthy, and most people consider going to the gym in the month of January, to start getting fit and healthy again after the Christmas holidays, as a new years resolution hoping that it will stick. So they start off strong going to the gym daily to workout or working out at home if they have a home gym every day or every other day for a little bit.
Then as it does with everything else the novelty wears off, and going to the gym or working out in your own home gym is put on the back burner and forgotten. You would think if you do it repetitively it would stick right, well for some people, it might and others it might not. But don’t do something just because it might not work everything doesn’t work for everyone because everyone is different. Fitness does not and will not always fit into your schedule, things might come up unexpectedly, that you can’t change. For example getting the flu you can neither plan nor stop it and that might in some way impact your workout in a sense that you might need to miss it or you might not be able to do your full workout because of it. So if you are ill and you can’t do your workout that would be a good day to use as a rest day.
Being sick is not the only time you should take time off from working out or take a rest day, that is what taking time off from working out is actually called. You shouldn’t workout every day of the week, you should at least designate two days a week as rest days so that you don’t strain your muscles because nobody wants that. It is painful and can hurt you more in the long run if you don’t rest. So always remember taking time off from going to the gym or using your home gym is a good thing because your body can’t handle all that pressure that working outputs on it, and if you want to continue to do it you need to rest. When your body starts to protest with pain that means rest, and always listen to your body it knows best always remember that.
For example, in a previous post, I said that I worked out for an entire week and felt great, sure that week I felt great, but the week after was a different story. Since I didn’t take any time off the week before I was pushing myself to do my workouts the next week through the pain instead of letting myself rest and I wasn’t getting any better, so I decided that if I took some time off from my workouts and focused on other things I might feel better the next time I worked out and you know what I did . exercising when you don’t know what you are doing or exercising too much can be dangerous so A) know what you are doing, and B) if your muscles are really sore the next day take some time off and relax them instead of pushing them to their limits its better to relax your muscles then to strain them because if you stain them too much you might never be the same, and you don’t want that.
Even if you aren’t sore or sick you should rest about two days a week from your workouts because it will keep your muscles more flexible and relaxed for future workouts. Don’t stress your muscle they can only take so much just like we can only take so much. Don’t be ashamed of taking a day or two off a week from your workouts your body needs rest, from all the strain that working out, puts on it in order to function properly. There is no shame in taking a break it is better for your health if you do. When I take days off of my workouts I am usually using those days to write, and catch up on things that I have missed while working out throughout the week, or even just spending time with family. That is what your rest day should be for. If you need to take some time off from your workout because of something coming up in your life, don’t feel bad, having a rest day is not a missed workout some people have more than two rest days because that works for them, remember that everyone is different so there rest days and the amount of exercise they can do and that they get is different from someone else. Working out is great but doing it too much isn’t so remember to take a break.
As I said before, some people take two days off from there workouts some take more, but they might add another workout into there day verse only having one workout. It is what works for them I take two days off as I said and I use those days to write. If you want to see results in your workout you have to take days off to recover from the strain, of it but always go back to it after a day or two don’t give up. On your workouts, if you want to stay healthy and fit you can’t stop your workouts altogether because then it won’t help you in the long run. But if you need a break take it, you need to rest after you workout don’t push yourself so that you can’t do things later that is not good for the body nor is it good for the mind.
Take a rest day!! Your body will thank you!!
The Fit Flex Life 