Rest Days Mental Gains

We’ve heard it before, rest days are just as important as your workout days. Finding the balance can be tricky, if you’re an adrenaline junky like me. I’ve found myself training 10 days in a row without realizing it, only to feel my body and mental game struggling. In recent years, I have learned to fully embrace rest days. In the past I would view rest days as something outside the gym, that included repeat hills at Newhall park (thanks Jess and Helen :)). I know now that repeat hills are far from rest. I now enjoy giving my body fully dedicated rest days. I have found not only has that saved by body from being beat up, but has helped my mental game as well. On Rest days I rest 100%. On Training days I train 100%. No in-between. I would like to propose something, give it your all no matter what, this means when you rest..REST, when you train….Train. For me, this approach has helped deal with the guilt I used to associate with rest days. I know now that by giving my body the rest it needs, I am more apt to perform better in the future and avoid burn out. Happy Resting!

2 replies
  1. Helen Langkilde
    Helen Langkilde says:

    Totally agree! Ive also been guilty of not taking enough rest days or overtraining. I’ll realize it right after I’ve done a workout that I felt crappy doing and couldn’t switch gears. Like I can’t turn my engine completely on. So I’ll look to see when I last took a rest day and sure enough, it will be around day 8 of straight training. I now know, that if I want to feel my absolute best, it will be after I have rested 2 days straight. And this is usually what I will do before competitions. Just chiming in on what Rene is saying because it’s so common, especially if you’re super motivated to make improvements quickly but it can also be the thing that’s holding you back from making bigger gains long term.

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