How to Decide Whether You Need to Rest

Everyone knows that recovery is important for health and fitness, but deciding when to back off is not always easy. Here are some things to think about:

• First of all, if you are mostly sedentary and do only moderate exercise such as walking, I don’t think you should ever really take days off. If the hardest physical thing you do is go for a daily walk, you are not causing enough stress to the system to be resting. Just keep up with your walking regimen and revisit the resting issue if you decide to ramp things up.
• If you are a casual trainee - someone who does moderately difficult structured exercise like step class or light calisthenics, you don’t really need to be taking much time off, either. This level of trainee should be able to sustain daily exercise indefinitely, with maybe a couple Sundays off every now and then. Certainly if you are at this level you don’t need multiple days off.
• If you are a weekend warrior-type who works out with weights one or two times a week and plays pick-up ball on the weekends, then I think it’s prudent to take two but no more than three days off per week. Again, at this level you are not really capable of producing stress at a systemic level so even a tough week should be no problem to recover from. When you do take rest days, try to get in a 30 minute walk.
• If you are an amateur athlete or working out more than three days a week with weights it gets a little more complicated. At this level we are talking about trainees who are actually capable of exceeding their ability to recover. I’m just going to give general advice here, and that advice is to train with the fewest amount of rest days you need to keep progressing. Don’t underrest — at this level it makes no sense because you will lose some fitness if you destroy yourself. How do you know when to rest here? When you stop progressing and stall or regress. Keep a tight log and note when your gains — endurance, speed, strength, whatever — stop coming. Then just do your warmup every other day for a week but no more than a week.
• If you are a serious amateur athlete with goals in the upper levels of your sport or activity then ideally you should consult with coaches in your sport to help you plan your rest. I consider myself in this level because I am training to become an elite CrossFitter. Therefore the following advice is only for people who are also training for a high level of GPP. The most important thing you can do is to track your training variables (reps, sets, time of day, etc.) very closely and use this information in concert with how your body feels to take rest days. If you are using a periodized weightlifting program then there should be rest and unloading planned in there. Generally speaking after about three to four weeks of full intensity there should be about a week of moderate intensity lifting and conditioning. I can’t stress how important it is to get into the gym during this time and do light work without unduly stressing the body. Do your warmup and run a slow mile, or do some moderate singles in Olympic lifting assistance exercises, but don’t go for all-time limit PRs. Walk some and eat as much or more good food than usual to replenish energy stores.
• If you are an elite level athlete, go ask your coach when to rest.

And a few other pointers:

• Track the time of day you workout in your log and note the minimum amount of time you need to recover from the previous days workout. For me it’s 24 hours for a hard metcon and 18 for a heavy lifting day.
• Older trainees need to rest more frequently and longer than younger folks. Sorry, it’s just the way it goes. Once you get past 25 you need to keep a close eye on your volume. You’ll still be able to lift as much but not as frequently.
• If you don’t eat enough good food you will need to recover sooner and for longer. If you’ve been traveling take that into account.
• Notice if you feel “flat” when warming up. It’s hard to describe but easy to recognize. Don’t confuse drowsy because of time of day, sleep deprivation, hunger, or stress with feeling “flat.”
• You don’t need to rest if you are sore, only if you are so sore that you can barely move.
• Pay attention to the quality of your sleep. If stress is keeping you up, then you might need to take an extra day to compensate.
• Don’t be afraid to take an extra day if you need it, but don’t decide to take the day off if you came to the gym to do a workout. Work out on the days you intend to work and plan your rest.
• It’s good advice to stretch and do alignment on off days, but I never do. I find that taking a 20 minute nap and a hot shower are all I need to recover.
• Don’t destroy yourself. I’m 29 and a Level III CrossFitter and recognize the vital importance of not trying to become Level IV next week. Once you are past the novice stage, the slower you progress yourself, the better. Instead of seeing how fast you can get to some weight, see how slowly you can do it. You’re more likely to avoid overwhelming your system. You can’t gain strength if you are recovering from silly overtraining. (Planned overtraining is a different deal and subject for another post).

Ask questions in comments.