How to Plan Your Workout Rest Days for Optimum Fitness
Following a workout plan can help keep you motivated and on track with your fitness. However, it’s important to take rest days in between intense workouts so that your muscles can recover, repair, and build strength.
Not only are rest days crucial for recovery, but resting the right way can help support your fitness results. Factors such as gentle exercise, nutrition, and hydration levels can all affect how well you recover. Read on to learn how to plan your workout rest days for optimum recovery and fitness results.
1. Have a Proper Workout Plan
First things first: you want to make sure you have a proper workout plan curated by areputable fitness expert. There is a lot of free fitness content online, which makes it easy to find a workout plan, but not all of it is created by accredited fitness experts. This puts you at risk of receiving incorrect exercise information, which could lead to injury when working out.
Here are a few apps andwebsites you can use to find reputable fitness content:
Try to pick a workout plan that prioritizes rest days alongside activity days.
2. Schedule Rest Days on Your Calendar
Initiating a workout plan can be hard if you lack motivation, so scheduling it can help you get started. More importantly—it’s a good idea to schedule your rest days to ensure that recovery is a priority.
You don’t need to do anything fancy to schedule your workouts and rest days in. You could try one of the following scheduling apps to get you started:
Now you have your workout and rest days in your schedule, it’s time to plan your rest days for optimum recovery.
3. Pick a Few Gentle Activities You Enjoy
Referred to as “active rest days,” undertaking gentle exercise on your days off can help reduce muscle fatigue and soreness, prevent injury, and lessen recovery time between your workouts.
These are a fewactive recovery ideas to make the most of your rest days:
You don’t need to plan a complicated active rest day, but having a few ideas ready to try can help keep you motivated. Don’t forget to listen to your body and don’t push yourself on your rest days—it’s about recovering and repairing, not overdoing it.
4. Plan for Optimum Recovery Nutrition and Hydration
Another aspect you need to plan for on your rest days is optimum nutrition and hydration. According toNASM, prioritizing enough calories, macronutrients, and micronutrients is essential for your health, performance, and recovery. Adequate hydration is also crucial, as water regulates your body temperature, lubricates your joints (which are put to the test during exercise), and transports nutrients.
To ensure you’re getting optimum nutrition and water intake levels for your training schedule, try these apps:
Again, don’t stress too much about eating “the right thing” on your recovery days. Aim for a variety of foods to gain optimum nutrition, and remember to hydrate throughout the day to aid recovery.
5. Do a Non-Fitness Activity on Your Rest Day
With all this workout and recovery day planning, it’s a good idea to take a mental break from it all. In the same way that relying on fitness trackers orsmartwatches can be triggering for your mental health, hyper-focusing on your workout plan can cause unnecessary stress. Instead, plan non-fitness-related activities on your rest day. Life is all about balance after all!
To keep a healthy mindset on your days off, try one of these activities:
strive to find a hobby you enjoy (or that you want to try) and schedule it for your rest day. That way, you won’t feel like you’re “wasting” your days off, but making the most of your time when you’re not working out.
Prioritize Your Well-Being on Active Recovery Days
It’s a good idea to support your workouts by planning optimum recovery days, but don’t dwell on it too much. Aim for a little gentle low-impact movement, good nutrition (don’t starve yourself—your body needs food for recovery), and adequate hydration to help your body recover faster and provide better results for your workouts.
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