The Importance Of Recovery With Your Fitness Training Plan

Everyone values hard work, but it's also important to make sure you get downtime as well. Nowhere is this more important than with exercise, whether you're a runner, lifter, yoga guru or dancer. We're going to give it to you straight and let you have some reasons why it's so important to schedule in rest days.

Promote muscle recovery

When you workout, you're depleting your muscles' energy stores and also might be causing micro tears in your muscles. Don't worry, your energy stores will fill up again and the tears are part of the natural process of building muscle… but you've got to give your body time to do its job and replenish. While you're resting, your body is filling up those energy stores for the next round and building those muscles back bigger and better.

Overcome adaptation

Beating those personal records is something many of us chase and strive for, and this means we've got to improve but often what our body really wants is for everything to stay the same. If we have the exact same routine, our body learns to adapt to that task, and rather than striving to be better all the time it fits into a comfortable groove. To avoid getting stuck in a routine, many personal trainers build programs that increase intensity and effort, and with a great program that really pushes your limits, you'll need plenty of rest.

Prevent overtraining

You might have guessed by the name, but if you train too much without enough rest in between, you may end up with overtraining syndrome. It's an unfortunate condition that can dehydrate you, increase your fat reserves, lower your sex drive and overall make you feel bad. It can be a hard thing to shake and as always, prevention is better than cure, so make sure to get that rest.

Promote relaxation

So far, we've given you lots of reasons why rest days are good for your body, but it's also good for your mind. We all need to find time for friends and family and surely, it's great if we can do that without suffering from leg cramps where we've been training too much. Everything is about balance, so splitting your time between fitness, family and work will also likely lead to a better mood and a more productive lifestyle.

We hope we've convinced you on the benefits of scheduling rest in your workout because taking care of yourself is important. Remember, a great workout needs a great rest.

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