APRIL – JUST ANOTHER BUMPER MONTH IN THE LIFE OF VALESCO

This months Coaches Corner is written by Coach Amy and it’s all about taking a rest.

Yep you heard me right it’s all about resting and all import rest days.

We put a quick post out about this on Instagram and it’s sparked a few very interested conversations so I wanted to take this opportunity to go into a little more details.

Headline – they are important, just as important as your training days.

We know it can be hard to take those rest days as the gym can often be a mental and physical escape from work, home and other situations, you are making gainz every sessions and riding high on the post workout endorphins and a tiny bit of FOMO might come in about missing that workout but you need to plan in and take your rest days.

Rest days allow you a mini deload (and we all know how important deloading is) in the week. Allowing those tiny tears we make in our muscle training (which help them grow) recover and get stronger meaning you will be able to do the same work with less effort next time.

Giving your body time to recover reduces the chance of injury. You know those tiny tears we mentioned? If you don’t give them time to repair they can become sprains, which means a lot more rest days than you were originally planning.

Taking rest days keeps your training motivation high, wanting to hit the next time you are back in the gym harder than ever. We all train because we enjoy it, not taking rest days can strip the fun out of training and derail your progress all together.

Rest days help your sleep and this is vitally import when you are training hard. During sleep the body releases hormones to help your muscles grow and repair. Our muscle relax during sleep, which can help release tension and aid with our old friend the DOMS, in the REM phase your brain also processes information from the day and stores it in your long term memory, meaning that complex move you are trying to master might final start to make sense!

Rest days can help support your immune system. No one wants all that hard training derailed by a nasty cold or virus so if you want to stay healthy you need to make sure you are taking a break. Studies have shown that moderate exercise reduce the risks of cold and flu but bouts of long and hard exercise, without rest days, make you more likely to fall foul of upper respiratory infections.

Rest days, easier workouts and adaption weeks (such as deload weeks), are all important parts of a training plan.

So how many rest days a week should we be taking? Sadly there is no magic formula to calculate the number of rest days to what each individual needs as it effected by a fair few elements such as fitness, genetics, intensity of workouts and how stressful your everyday life is. Listening to your body and monitoring tiredness and soreness should be your biggest guide to how many rest days you need. We would recommend at least one and ideally 2 full rest days per week.

So what should I do on my rest days? So it doesn’t mean that you are bound to the sofa with a box set and your favourite food – although that does sound pretty good to me. Rest days can be active (a long walk, gentle swim, restorative yoga class or a spin on the bike) or inactive (anything you like really – catch up with friends, read that book you have been meaning to get too, trip out with the family or friends or even baking, whatever helps you unwind!) as long as they give your body and brain a rest its all good.

Take it easy…literally,

Coach Amy x