Exercising is an important part of keeping fit, especially if your goal is to lose weight, exercise can speed up the process.

I often get asked how my weight loss was so quick, exercise played a huge role in my journey and I exercised EXCESSIVELY (up to 2 hours a day).

It wasn’t a sustainable lifestyle and I certainly don’t exercise as much as I used too, now.

Exercising without rest can pose many risks to our bodies and our health.

We often don’t pay attention to the importance of rest days but sleep, weight loss and performance are a few of the many things that are affected (in a negative way) by overtraining.

Our bodies need at least a day off to recover in order for our muscles and tissues to rebuild and repair.

Here are SOME reasons why rest days are just as important as working out:

Rebuild and repair

When we exercise, we create tiny tears in our muscle fibres. Our bodies respond by rebuilding our muscles stronger, ready for the next session. That reaction only happens with time off, the body needs a minimum of 36 to 48 hours to reset. Without it, the body has no opportunity to rebuild and strengthen muscles; they just continue to break down. That has a negative impact on all the hard work you put in.

Injury prevention

Resting is beneficial for injury reduction. Overuse of muscles without rest can cause injury that can put you out for weeks! If you push too hard without a break, muscles and joints suffer and that’s when injury can occur.

Performance won’t dip

It takes about 2 weeks of non-activity before you start to lose a noticeable amount of progress, so don’t think that one day of will ruin all of your hard work.

I have recently taken almost 2 months off because of illness and I lost muscle but did not gain any body fat. Taking a day off will have a positive impact on your training and you will feel stronger for it!

Restlessness

Overtraining can make your body feel restless and sleep can become an issue.

Sleep ideally provides the body time to rest and repair itself, but overproduction of stress hormones may not allow you to wind down or completely relax, making sleep much less effective which in turn causes fatigue and moodiness!

Rest day always feels like an eternity and I usually find myself thinking about what I will be doing at the gym for the rest of the week – or wishing I was at the gym! Just remember that rest is part of the process!

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