Why Do You Need to Rest 1-3 Days Between Workouts?

So you're in the gym getting your orientation and the trainer says, "make sure you take a day off between workouts. Doing circuit training Monday, Wednesday, and Friday is a good plan." What gives? I thought exercise was good for you? Why do I need to take a day of rest?

What many forget is that exercise is stress on the body. Make no mistake, it is very good for you, however, it's when you recover from exercise that you get the benefits. This is especially true with resistance training. For this lesson, we'll focus on resistance training to illustrate this concept of stress followed by recovery.


Here's the Explanation

It has to do with something called SRA. All it stands for is stimulus-recovery-adaptation. In other words, you give your body a stimulus to build muscle and get stronger (i.e. you workout). Afterwards, you rest for a day or two making sure to get at least 8 hours of sleep and your fist or two of veggies at most meals (recovery). Then you go back to working out and you notice that you can lift more weight or do more repetitions (adaptation). Check out the illustration below.

The blue line represents your fitness level. This could represent how fast you can run, how long you can run, how much weight you can lift, or how many times you can lift the same weight; just as a few examples. Notice that by day 3 the line is higher than it was on day 1. That's because your workout on day 1 gave your body the stimulus to adapt. Basically, your workout said, "hey body, you need to get stronger because we're probably doing this again in the future." Your body said, "oh geez, let's get stronger!" 


Now, over time this cycle may look something like this:

Notice again, over time this cycle can add up. Each workout gets progressively harder causing you to get stronger, faster, leaner, and feeling better!

This curve is actually a combination of muscles growing and repairing the damage done during the workout, as well as the nervous system recovering, the hormones readjusting, and many other systems adapting to the stress you put on them during the workout.




The Gist

So what's the take away here. After you workout, rest about 48 hours, then workout again and try to beat what you did last time. For example, lift 5 pounds more or do 1 or 2 more reps with the same weight that you used last time. Remember, the body is lazy (or efficient depending on how you look at it). In order to improve, you have to do more than you did before. Then rest and recover by getting at least 8 hours of sleep a night and practicing good nutrition habits like eating a fist or two of vegetables at most meals. After that, enjoy the benefits of being stronger and more fit!


In the same way that we need rest for our bodies, we also need rest for our soul and spirit. Follow God's leading and rest one day a week. Go to church and learn. Spend time with God, family, and friends. Also, take some time each day to rest. Study some scripture and pray. Get close to God a little more each day.




 Love. More. Better.

-Chris