Should you ever take more rest and recovery than one day off a week?

Absolutely there is a time and place for taking more than one day of recovery/rest. For instance if I have a client (or myself for that matter) who has prepared and participated in an athletic event that required maximum effort, it is probably wise for them to take more than a one-day rest during that following week. Your body needs time to heal/repair/recover, and if the “event” that it is recovering from was one of maximum or high-intensity effort, the “extra” rest is not only smart but probably necessary.

LaRue, CSCS
www.lecfitness.com
[email protected]

Definitely! It’s so important to listen to your body and watch for signs of overtraining.

Absolutely! I explain overtraining to my clients like this: Imagine a bucket with a hole in the bottom. Think of exercise like water, and think of the water draining out of the bottom as the recovery period. It only makes sense that your body takes longer to recover from exercise than it takes TO exercise (same concept with an injury); otherwise we’d have a lot more olympic athletes! If you put water into the bucket so fast that it doesn’t have time to drain out, you’re just kidding yourself. You have to give yourself and your clients proper rest or else the benefits are diminished, and you never get anywhere. Rest intervals depend largely on the amount/intensity of training and the overall level of fitness.

Self care is so important in our industry. As my body feels the need to rest, I generally take it. It’s the same thing I encourage my clients to do.

I let them know that if I don’t take care of myself, I am not in a good position to assist them and they understand.

There are many variables to consider when answering this question. There is not ONE answer without understanding other components of the training program you are referring to. Rest/Recovery are highly dependent on the intensity at which one is training. Also, if your a integrating split muscle training groups there are ways to avoid overtraining certain muscle groups while still being able to train more frequently.

Fuel the Movement,

JM