Rest Day. Importance?

[devils4551]

I work out alot, i dont know why i just have time i guess which is extremly fortunate because i know at some point i wont. I was just wondering how important are rest days, i lift mostly 6 times a week rotating shoulders and legs, back and bicep, and chest and tricep, i also try to get in around 20 minuntes of cardio a day, and recently to me a rest day is just running, on the 7th day of the week ill try to run for around 30 minutes or so, So i guess im just asking how important rest days really are, i am rotating all muscles on days of 3, so do i need to take a rest day, or am i hurting myself by not having a real full day of rest? Thanks for the help once again.

[mike314]

Rest is always needed or else you'll get injured just like I did a few weeks back. For about 6 months I had a 6 day workout week, (including working fulltime) and around the 5th month I decided to increase my cardio by tacking on more running. I ended up getting inflammation in my knees forcing me to rest for about 3 weeks. And for those 3 weeks I was crying to get back into the gym. It was a hugh mental setback not being able to do anything til I was fully rested.

Everyone here will agree, rest is as important as the workouts you do. A full day of rest is the best. You wont build muscle if you dont rest. Here are some ideas to try:
1. Workout different muscle groups on different days (seems like your doing that), but add a full day or two of rest during the week.

2. Someone recommeded this to me, 4 weeks of your regular schedule then 1 week of light workouts then back to 4 weeks etc...

3. Take holidays and special occassion days off. In the beginning I didnt, but now I do.

trust me, in the beginning you can easily get very excited at the gym and excited with your progress which can get you accelerating your pace too soon. At a pace like that you are bound to get injured, which sucks even more than little progress.

again above all remember to stretch for about 5 mins before your workout, and drink tons of water (at least a gallon a day). Whether your trying to lose weight, build muscle, tone, get in shape, those things are essential.

[F_Mac]

Most people cannot handle training 6x per week without stalling big time on all their lifts unless workload is extremely low. You would be much better off doing a 3x per week routine, doing some cardio on a couple of your off days and having 2 full days of rest (i.e. no cardio, no weights). Try something like this and you will most likely make much more progress.

Essentially now, you are taking no days off.............this is counterproductive to 99.9% of the population.

[devils4551]

i have been getting results not all that quickly though anymore but after my final season of footall ended i wanted to drop weight so i went down from 220 to 180 and now i just fluctuate around 180-185 i am 6'2'', but i did that and thankfully kept most of my muscle in around 5 months. there are certain days where i just feel shot (1 time a week or 1 every two weeks) and at this time i just force myself through work outs, but other then that ive never had any kind of injury other then my cardio at times being hard to get through due to my legs being a little tired. so i guess what im asking is if i can do it should I? or will adding a day of rest help my results?

[maverick]

Muscles grow OUT of the gym while resting. Training too often impedes on recovery and hampers strength gains. Those 2 statements should help you decide what to do.

[.V.]

Train 1 or 2 parts a day 5 days a week or multiple parts 3 days a week.

If you don't rest, you don't grow.

[MAURER]

i ahve found that its nice to start a split doing it often for 3 weeks and then switching to more rest, especially if you're just coming out of a rest period.

[SarahPT]

More isn't necessarily better for muscle growth or fat loss. Resting is as important as eating right and exercising. On those days when you feel run down let yourself rest.

Sarah