5 Signs That Suggest You Need a Rest Day

We all know regular exercise is recommended. The American Heart Association even recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week. So, wouldn’t more exercise be even better? Yes, but only until a certain point. That point is when the exercise you are performing is actually doing more harm to your body than good. That point is called overtraining and it happens faster than you might think, especially when you’re not a fan of rest days.  

So, what exactly is over training?

Overtraining is the tipping point where whatever form of exercise you are doing is causing harm to your body, leading to a decrease in overall performance and even possible injury. This point can be reached even faster when an individual is doing too much exercise without enough recovery and chronically underfueling their body. Also, overtraining isn’t something that just high-level athletes should be aware of, it can happen to anyone at any fitness level!

How do I know if I need more rest days?

Here are 5 signs that suggest you need to add more rest days into your current routine:

1. Movements, or activities you regularly do feel much harder and require more energy than normal.
2. Not being able to fully wind down or relax, making sleep very difficult and much less effective.
3. Experiencing frequent mood swings and the inability to concentrate on everyday tasks.
4. The constant development of new injuries or an injury lasting longer than 2 weeks.
5. Extreme exhaustion.

If you said “oh my gosh that’s me” to any of these 5 signs my guess is that you are not allowing your body to recover properly with planned rest days. I always suggest at least 2 planned rest days a week however, you might need more, and that’s ok! These planned rest days will allow your body to fully recover and ensure that you do not injure yourself while exercising.

If you still have questions about rest days or how to program rest days into your current training routine, please email me at lisa@thoughtfullyfueled.com with “Rest Day” in the subject line! Trust me, rest days are 100% worth it.