You Should.....

Give it a Rest

A lot of people would like to improve themselves in some way, whether that be in terms of sporting performance, muscular hypertrophy (gaining muscular size) or losing weight. Regardless of the purpose behind your training, there are a couple of obsticles that most people will encounter.

 

Motivation is a major one. All people at some stage will struggle with their motivation somewhere along the way and overcoming this is very much down to personal fortitude and determination. This is what seperates top athletes from the also-rans and those who repeatedly set and achieve goals from those who have used a gym for years (decades even!) without ever accomplishing their desired results. Our instructors can offer all manner of advice and ideas on how to keep yourself motivated and focused but essentially the decision to stick to a plan and work hard at it on every visit is very much down to one person. You.

 

The second, and potentially more dangerous problem, is that of over-training. I say more dangerous in the respect that I've never heard of someone physically injuring themselves or, for instance, tearing a muscle through pure lack of motivation.  Over-training syndrome is a real condition and effects a great deal of gym users and athletes whether they realise it or not.  This is often a result of a lack of understanding of a rest day's usefullness within an exercise regime.

 

Rest days are a crucial element in any programe for many reasons, but most notably to prevent injury and allow sufficient time for muscles to repair and develop between sessions. The most common misconception is that a rest day represents time not being spent working towards ones given target. In fact a rest day constitutes an active and important part of achieving any goal in that it will allow time for all the hard work to be 'redeemed' whilst you rest. If you just continue to train day after day eventually you will find yourself overtrained, probably injured and actually moving further from your targets as a result.

 

The most common physical and psychological symptoms of over-training are;

 

• Washed-out feeling, tired, drained, lack of energy
• Mild leg soreness, general aches and pains
• Pain in muscles and joints
• Sudden drop in performance
• Insomnia (inability to sleep) 
• Headaches
• Decrease in training capacity / intensity
• Moodiness and irritability
• Depression
• Loss of enthusiasm for the sport
• Decreased appetite
• Increased incidence of injuries.
• Lowered immunity (increase in number of colds and sore throats)
• A compulsive need to exercise

 

 It's fairly obvious as to how each of these ailments do not lend themselves to a progressive training regime and this illustrates the importance of avoiding overtraining as a whole. One of the most common mistakes is one often made by those who are generally very active in their day to day lives in addition to following a specific training programme. Most of us only take into account the exercise we perform in the gym and/or in relation to the goals we have set ourselves and what people forget is that, regardless of how much we enjoy it or feel invigorated by it, exercise is just another stress factor within our daily lives. Stress is accumulative in nature and can be contributed to by a number of different factors, both physical and psychological. Take the list of symptoms above for example, they can all be re-caterogised as symptoms related to excessive stress as well as those of over-training and this is why it can be neccesary to adjust or adapt your training workload at times of increased stress in order to redress the balance between training enough to progress and doing too much.

 

The same can be said of fatigue. If you regularly fail to sleep adequately then it can have a detrimental affect on your body's ability to both train and recover. This is partly due to slight hormonal changes, including elevated cortisol (related to stress), decreased activity of the Human Growth Hormone (HGH-responsible for muscle regeneration) and decreased glycogen synthesis resulting in lowered energy levels.

There are many ways in which you can utilise a rest day to aid your progress and allow your body the time it needs to recover, here are just a few;

Stretching
Stretching is always a good choice because this will actively help you to recover by making the muscles more pliable and increasing the blood supply to them as they repair and re-build themselves. It will also, over time, help to increase flexibility and improve the biomechanics and muscle recruitment you can utilise whilst training in future. An easy way to start to improve your suppleness is to take part in a Yoga or Mobility Class on your rest days in order to learn to relax and de-stress whilst still contributing to you objectives.

Swimming/ Pool Recovery
Swimming is an excellent past time during rest periods largely because of the lack of impact involved. Your body is supported by the water throughout and this provides both buoyancy and a degree of gentle resistance to again help increase blood flow to those repairing muscles. Obviously swimming lengths is only a good solution if you are fortunate enough to find swimming both relaxing and comfortable - If you are not a strong swimmer then 20 lengths probably isn't your idea of a rest! Instead you can simply use the pool to perform some simple mobility exercises such as shoulder circles or leg kicks holding onto the pool wall in order to get the same benefits without risking your life.....

OR...if you really can't bare to be away from us.....

Reduce your worload
If you simply have to use the gym then it is wise to reduce you weights and concentrate on your form for a week every couple of Months (or more regularly if you prefer) in order to reduce the work your muscles are having to recover from. This slight reduction in workload can be enough to get you through but there really is nothing better than a good day off.....