It seems like after Halloween, things kick into high gear
for the rest of the year. Christmas
appears in the stores, it gets dark earlier, so many activities are going
on. If you are able to keep up with your
workouts, you have likely noticed that you’re busy but quite effective at
budgeting your time. With all this going
on, rest days become quite treasured.
Those days are super important, so here are a few tips to make the most
out of them.
First of all, please take a break from your intense workout
sessions. Your body needs time to
recover and replenish. Muscles will
appreciate the rest, and reward you long term with results. It’s up to you and your schedule how many to
take each week. Mine tend to be one or
two, spaced out during the week.
Rest days are necessary for weight loss. In order to keep on track towards your
individual goals, try to watch your food on the days you don’t workout. Stick with your diet plan on these days. When you add a calorie-rich cheat day to a
day when you aren’t as active as usual, it’s a double whammy to your plan. Some good ideas are protein rich foods and
lots of vegetables (but then, that’s every day I suppose).
If you can remember back to high school physics, and I
understand some of you may have blocked that class out of your long term
memory, one of the laws of physics states a body in motion tends to stay in
motion. Rest day doesn’t necessarily
mean a couch potato day. Get out and be
active in a light intensity kind of way. This is actually very simple to
accomplish. Take the dog for a longer
walk (trust me, they won’t mind one bit), play with your kids at the
playground, do a yoga DVD at home, shovel snow if that’s the reason for your
rest day. Even household chores can be
applied here…scrubbing floors is definitely not sitting still!
The whole point of a rest day is to rest your body so it’s
recovered and ready for the next days of hard work. Treat your body well and schedule rest days
when possible, knowing that your schedule may dictate some of those days.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving, readers! See you at the gym!
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