Why is a rest day important in exercise?
Depending on the type of exercise and your body it can take anywhere from two days to a week for muscles to fully recover after a workout. Each area of your body should get a minimum of 24-48 hours of recovery after high intensity workouts. Healthy exercise requires us to be intuitively intune with our bodies and recognize when we have the energy and it is healthy to workout and when it is more productive to give our body a rest.
Though exercises has endless benefits from building strength and stamina to stimulating endorphin production, rest is equally as important. Finding the right balance may take practice, but the most important step is being cognizant of your body’s need for rest and knowing when to take a break preemptively. Recovery is much harder when you push yourself too far and experience the adverse affects of working out such as overtraining syndrome, extreme muscle fatigue or injury.
There are two basic types of post-workout rest, active recovery and passive recovery. Passive recovery, put simply, is taking a day off from working out all together. Often times you may want to rest without losing momentum, this is when active recovery comes in.
Active recovery can be any type of light exercise and movement such as walking or yoga. Active recovery is a great way to balance out taxing workouts, without losing the benefits of every day movement. The benefit of active recovery is that you still keep your body moving which increases blood circulation allowing the removal of toxins and waste products such as lactic acid that are produced during muscle breakdown. This also increases your body’s ability to deliver much needed oxygen and nutrients to the muscles while they recover.
Rest is absolutely necessary for muscle repair, particularly to allow your body to replenish glycogen stores and avoid muscle fatigue. If you are experiencing more than usual muscle soreness, achy joints, pain, or fatigue it’s often a sign you are in need of a rest day. If your preference is active recovery, check out our blog for inspiration on the various forms of yoga that are available to you.
In addition to passive or active recovery, you can also support your body immediately post-workout. Our Holi-Wonder Muscle and Skin Relief Cream as well as Holi-Freeze Muscle and Joint Relief Gel are excellent ways to experience targeted muscle and joint relief. The Holi-Balance Oral Drops and Ease Mango Gummies are also packed with powerful plant-based ingredients like Ashwagandha that is known to increase muscle mass, recovery, strength and mobility, as well as Evening Primrose Oil and hemp that have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.
At Holief our goal is to help you stay active and stay well, so make sure to rest when you need to and give your body all the support it needs to maintain a happy, healthy workout routine.
