Those who are weekly blog readers of mine, know that exercise is very important to me and a subject I talk about a lot. I’ve written about different types of exercise, tips on working out inside vs. outside, healthy eating habits to help with exercise goals, and so on.

A topic I’ve touched on a few times is how important it is to fit in a little bit of physical activity every day. On the other hand, one thing I haven’t talked about much at all is how equally important it is to fit rest days into your routine as well.

I am one of those people who would work out hard every day if my body would allow it. It’s not only something I enjoy, but it’s how I deal with stress a lot of the time too. However, I know if I were to work out at the intensity that I do every day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year with no rest, I’m pretty much asking for burn out and injuries to occur. Nobody – not even professional athletes – can go without a rest day every now and again.

When I was in college, I tried working out hard every day. I was young and thought I was helping myself by working hard every day. One day, one of the guys I swam with asked me when the last time I took a day off was. I told him I couldn’t remember the last time I didn’t do anything. There were days where I would just go for a walk, but then I would go to the gym after and still lift weights. Those were “rest days” in my eyes. He shook his head at me and told me I was asking to get hurt. It upset me at the time, but I knew he was right. Eventually it would catch up to me if I didn’t start tossing in some days off.

Even now, I have a love/hate relationship with rest days. I love them, because I know I don’t have to do a whole lot. The most I do on rest days is walk my dog or do some light stretching. I hate them for the same reason – I don’t like not doing a lot! But I know how important they are to me, and they’re important for you too.

My workout schedule for a typical week is to work out hard six days, and take one day a week as a rest day. I typically take Saturdays as my rest day as they are usually the only day a week I get to sleep in, so I get to take full advantage of that rest day. It also works when I’m out of town on the weekends, because then I usually only have to figure out what to do for exercising once on Sundays.

Rest days are just as important as exercise days – just make sure you’re not doing MORE rest days than exercise days! 😉 Keep moving y’all!

Until next time! 🙂

Megan Nelson