Why rest and recovery days are so important.
Contents of this article:
1) No rest days - the biggest training mistake.
2) Are rest days important?
3) Why are rest days important? - including discussion of fitness supercompensation graphs.
4) What should you do on a rest and recovery day?
5) How many rest and recovery days should you have per week?
6) When in the week should you have rest and recovery days?
7) Should you have recovery and deload weeks?
8) Summary.
1) No rest days - the biggest training mistake!
"I need to do more and more training/exercise to get fitter and in better shape. I wonder how much training can I fit into this week..."
This view is one of the most common misconceptions I come across, many people believe when they train they get fitter and so more training will lead to greater levels of fitness and get them in better shape, this is in part wrong.
You get fitter when you’re resting following a period of training, not when you are training.
2) Are rest days important?
Rest days are important for any fitness goal, whether that be training for an endurance sports such as a triathlon or wanting to build muscle and loose fat, essentially all types of training are placing stress on the body, this stress has to be absorbed for the adaptions that you want to take place whether internally or externally to occur.
3) Why are rest days important?
When you train you place stress on the system. If you tried to do the same workout just after a training session, or after a very taxing session the next few days after, you would do worse. You only get ‘fitter’ once this session has been absorbed and the body has had time to adapt. This adaption can only take place when the body has less stress applied to it, e.g on recovery day/ rest day. This principle can be shown on the following graphs:
Fitness graphs - super-compensation
The top graph shows in blue what happens to your fitness when you train. Essentially you train, fatigue causes the graph to drop, you then must rest and so the graph increases to a point where it was higher than previous, e.g your new level of fitness, your fitness has increased.
The second graph shows how fitness can increase or decrease depending on how much rest period you have. If you have the correct amount of rest period, the green line, then your fitness rises to a level higher than previous and your new starting base line is higher e.g your fitness increases as this cycle repeats. The grey line shows your fitness decreasing because too short of a recovery period is had. This is highlighted in the red circles and the red lines. Essentially the fitness curve has not been given enough time to increase and so you train again, more stress, more reduction in fitness and so the cycle continues as you are not recovering and not absorbing the training. This often presents itself as not improving, not seeing results, being tired an unable to do a workout, being injured, ill or even leading to long term burnout.
4) What should you do on a rest and recovery day?
Rest and recovery days can take the form of two types:
Type 1) a complete day off from training.
Type 2) active recovery - some easy low intensity exercise.
On complete days off I still like to go for easy walks, do stretching, foam rolling etc but try to give more time to switch off from training mentally as well.
On active recovery days an example of easy low intensity exercise example might be: if you are a decent swimmer and swimming doesn’t tax you, a 10-20 min extremely relaxed and easy swim. The main thing is just to induce some light blood flow and not stress the system. Some light injury prevention work such as core stability and activation work can also be done on these lower stress days but for complete days off I often don’t do core/activation etc on these days.
5) How many rest and recovery days should you have per week?
The amount of rest/recovery days and the type whether active recovery or complete days off are very specific to an individual however it is commonly thought at least 2 very easy days/days off per week is required. This may need to be more for some. I like to have at least 1 complete day off per week but I always walk my dogs every day and include some light stretching and possibly some foam rolling on these days off and then at least one extremely easy low intensity day per week. I continue to read the body and if I’m tired and don’t feel like I am absorbing the training and recovering I will take another day off/or easier recovery day. Continue to monitor how you are feeling, if you are tired and are struggling to train there is no benefit from keeping pushing and loading more stress into the system. Your body is giving you signs to back off. Listen to it and keep having recovery days until you feel fresh and ready to train at quality again.
6) When in the week should you have rest days and recovery days?
Where you place the recovery days can also play an important part and this is very much down to your specific training split. A good coach or well thought out training plan will place these days at times for optimum recovery and absorption of harder previous days and make you fresh for key training sessions that will have the biggest impact on your fitness.
7) Should you have recovery and deload weeks?
Recovery weeks or deload weeks are periods of training that are easier than normal. Deload periods are critical to build long term fitness without becoming burnout, injured and to avoid remaining stagnant. The amount of deload periods and the duration are dependant on the individual but it is common thought a deload period every 3rd or 4th week of training. Deload periods are also critical following races. A good coach will know your current fitness levels and weekly training volume and so should include the appropriate length and frequency of recovery periods as your body specifically requires.
8) Summary
Rest/recovery days and deload periods/deload weeks are essential to getting fitter. You need to absorb the training in order to get fitter. Have at least 2 extremely easy days/ days off per week, and continue to read how fresh you are feeling, have more if required. Include longer deload periods/weeks to absorb training after multiple weeks of training or after a hard event/race. If you don't place importance on recovery you will only overtrain and become less fit and so continue the routine of not placing importance on recovery if you want to become less fit and in worse shape! Start to place importance on recovery and watch your fitness and all round shape rocket upwards!!
Author: Tom Higgins, Head coach and founder of Hybrid Endurance.
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