How often do you give your body a total rest day? Are you someone who schedules your rest days or does your body dictate when you rest? Rest can feel complex at times, especially when the “gym police” are telling us the only way to be successful in movement is to follow a strict regimen. Or that we won’t meet our goals if we take rest days. But what if we switched the perspective, and looked at rest through the lens of curiosity, self-care and necessity, rather than judgment and shame? What impact would that have on the way you look at movement? 

As a certified personal trainer in Goderich, Ontario- I have learned that rest looks different for everybody. The amount of rest you need typically depends on how intensely you move your body. You might need to rest anywhere from one to two days a week, or maybe more, or maybe less. It is crucial to listen and be intuitive with what your body is telling you it needs, and not deny yourself that need.

Prefer to listen?   Check out this episode of The Joyful Movement Show to hear about principle 7. 

A Personal Trainer in Goderich, Ontario Shares 5 Reasons Why You Should Take A Rest Day

Why is rest beneficial? Taking regularly scheduled rest days has the following benefits: 

Improves strength

Rest actually improves your strength. If you’re someone who does strength training, what happens during your workouts/exercise sessions is that your muscles experience tiny microscopic tears. These tears need time to heal after your movement session, and the only way to achieve that is through rest. It’s that healing that actually makes your muscles grow and get stronger. Rest allows your muscles to make gains.

Prevents muscle fatigue

Resting prevents muscle fatigue. If you do more endurance or circuit-type activity, you need rest days to replenish the glycogen stores in your muscles. That is the stored glucose that you need to draw upon to get through longer, harder endurance activities. Without that replenishment, we can struggle to get through movements.

Improves your energy /performance

Resting improves your energy and your performance. Allowing those muscles to heal and refill with glycogen means they have more strength and power and endurance for your activity. You’ll be able to get through your workouts easier. Without adequate rest, you can run the risk of overtraining, which can actually cause the opposite result than you want and lead to injury.

Helps you sleep better

Resting helps you sleep better. It allows your cortisol levels to come down and your nervous system to relax. Removing yourself out of fight or flight mode, and therefore allowing you to sleep better and giving your body the regeneration time to heal.

Prevents injury

Resting prevents injury. Pushing through when you’re depleted and your muscles are sore can actually put you at risk of further injury, and push you back even farther from your goals. We want to work with our bodies, not fight against them.

Beyond the physical benefits, giving your physical body a break allows you to take care of your mental, spiritual, and emotional bodies as well. As a registered holistic nutritionist and certified personal trainer in Goderich, Ontario, I understand that it is vital that giving your physical body a break allows you to take time to notice whether you’re feeling balanced in the other areas of your life and to reflect on ways to care for the other parts of you beyond the physical. I always recommend considering the needs of your whole self before, during, and after every movement session. This can look like tuning into what your body feels like and needs before you even start your movement session and asking what would be in your best interest today.

Signs Your Body Needs Rest- Now

Resting is an essential part of our well-being and can come in various forms. From meditation to walks in nature or a simple yoga flow, taking intentional breaks helps us connect with ourselves on mental, emotional, and spiritual levels. But how do we actually recognize when it’s time for rest? Here are some signs that your body desperately needs you to slow down:

Sore Muscles

While it’s normal sometimes to feel a little sore after exercise, persistent soreness is a red flag. It means your muscles haven’t recovered from their past workouts. So if you’re sore, I recommend not pushing hard on the muscles that are feeling sore, do something else instead that will allow those particular muscles to recover.

Fatigue

If you’re feeling exhausted on a regular basis, that’s a sign that your body needs some rest and you can take a day or two off to replenish your energy stores.

Pain

Muscle or joint pain that doesn’t go away or progressively gets worse might be a sign of an overuse injury. That definitely needs rest and probably medical attention.

Emotional Changes

When you’re physically burnt out, when your body is spent, hormones like serotonin and cortisol become imbalanced. Serotonin is your sleepy hormone and cortisol is your stress hormone. If they’re unbalanced, it can cause changes like irritability, crankiness, and mood swings. If you notice that you’re moodier than you normally would be, it could be just a sign that you need to take a rest.

Sleep Issues

If your cortisol and adrenaline levels are continually raised, it can make it really hard to get quality sleep. Then, everything just seems harder when we’re tired.

Reduced Performance

If your normal routine feels difficult, or if you stop seeing progress, things that you normally would be able to get through without any trouble suddenly seem hard, and your legs feel extra heavy- that’s a clear sign that you need to take a little bit of rest.

Remember- an unscheduled rest day is NOT a setback.

Taking a day off to rest when it’s not scheduled might seem to you like a setback. As a personal trainer in Goderich, Ontario, I encourage you to change the narrative on this. After all, so much of this work is around our mindset! Consider looking at these unplanned rest days (that are in response to some of the above signs) and look at these days as an investment. What would it be like if you took a step back in order to strengthen the other parts of you? How does it feel to acknowledge that when all four of your bodies are balanced, your overall well-being and physical health will be greater than if you pushed through waiting for that scheduled rest day in the future? 

Question the arbitrary “rule” that rest days can only be taken on pre-planned days. Remember, movement is a personal practice whose primary goal is to help you take care of your physical body. Let’s try not to get too attached to the rules and focus a little more on tuning into what our body’s actually saying and honoring those needs in real-time.

Make sure to listen to your body’s signs and signals when it needs rest. Don’t ignore them– take action, honour your need for rest!

If you are ready to take the step into joyful movement, so that your fitness goals energize you instead of depleting you, Radiant Vitality is here to help you on your journey! As a Personal Trainer in Goderich, Ontario, I offer weight-neutral fitness support and body image coaching services with a mission to equip you with practical and sustainable tools to heal your relationship with exercise, food, and your body.

Schedule a free Motivation Makeover Call to get started!