These elements are fuel for the muscle-building that your body needs to do when it’s resting. Health Matters: Aside from watching your exertion level, what else is important during rest?Īpt: Good nutrition, adequate sleep, and proper hydration will help your body make the most of the rest you give it. And if you’re looking to get, as we say, “bigger-faster-stronger,” you will need to keep adjusting your workouts to build in new challenges as you gain strength, agility and endurance. You may want to have one or two days a week where you do no exercise at all. Keep track of your high-intensity workouts and follow them up with lighter exercise days. Or you may do weight-bearing exercise one day and follow it up with a day where you do non-weight-bearing exercise like walking, running or swimming. You can alternate daily workouts between lower-body and upper-body weight-lifting regimens, for example. Health Matters: What exactly do you mean by rest-a complete lack of activity?Īpt: Not necessarily. Every time you work out, followed by sufficient rest, your muscles get a little bigger and stronger. The muscle rebuilds with a tiny amount of scar tissue.
The strength-building comes when you rest those muscles, which allows them time to rebuild. When you are actively exercising, you’re not getting stronger-you’re actually putting stress on your body. Health Matters: What happens to muscles when you exercise, and during rest?Īpt: When you lift weights or do other exercise, you are actually causing small tears in the muscle fibers. But if you feel very sore two or three days after a workout, that’s a problem-especially if you try exercising on top of that deep fatigue.
During a workout, it’s normal to feel some soreness as you work those muscles and for a day later. Health Matters: What’s the harm in not getting enough rest?Īpt: Risks range from an increased tendency for muscle/ligament injuries to a serious health condition called rhabdomyolysis, where the death of muscle fibers causes their contents to be released into the bloodstream. So the current approach encourages you to work out effectively and efficiently, and provide your body with sufficient rest to recover from exercise before you work out again. If you overdo it with exercise, you’re not doing your body any benefit, and you may be doing it some harm. Health Matters: Why are we hearing more about rest as part of a fitness regimen?Īpt: There’s been a dramatic turnaround in our understanding of how the body responds to and recovers from exercise, and especially how the neurological system is involved in that recovery. We’re often told to fit more exercise into our busy lives, but what about making time to rest between workouts? Certified Athletic Trainer Cameron Apt explains why rest doesn’t just feel good, it also helps your body get the maximum benefit from exercise.
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