Bathing suit season has plenty of people taking their workouts a bit more seriously. While this desire to stay svelte might encourage you to kick your fitness routine into high-gear, it’s easy to take things too far. Working yourself to exhaustion at the gym every day means you’re at risk for overtraining, and it can take a toll on your body. Men’s Fitness explained working out too intensely can lead to constant muscle soreness, unquenchable thirst, and an altered resting heart rate. Trust us, looking great isn’t going to matter if you’re too wiped to even don your swim trunks.
As surprising as it might sound, spending a little bit of time away from the weight room or treadmill is one of the best things you can do for your body. You’ll feel less tired overall; plus, regularly taking a day to recover actually does a lot for your health. If you’re feeling run down, a little rest could benefit you in five different ways. So take a break. Your body will thank you.
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1. Reduce risk of injury
Performing strenuous workouts every day might get you in shape initially, but you could soon find yourself suffering from some painful problems. Wellbridge explained exercising puts more strain on nearly every part of your body. The article said, “Our immune system is activated when there are muscle tears or joint strains, but if the body doesn’t come out of continual practice, it doesn’t have the time to catch up and start patching everything back up.” So even if you’re just experiencing some sort of mild strain, continuing to work through the discomfort could lead to a much bigger injury down the road, like stress fractures, according to The Active Times. And those types of serious ailments are going to require a lot more time off than if you had just taken a break every so often.
Even for exercise veterans, a day or two per week might not be enough. If you’re involved in a seasonal sport or activity, longer periods of rest should be a regular part of your routine. About Health said good training programs incorporate rest weeks into an annual cycle where athletes will perform activities that aren’t as intense. These professionals take some downtime during their off seasons, and so should you.