How are my Wellness Warriors? In the fitness world there is a lot of talk about consistency. You certainly won’t be able to reach training goals if you aren’t training regularly. And it is hard to argue with the literal mountains of research suggesting that participating in consistent movement has positive outcomes for long term Physical Health. But rest and recovery is also important, so how do you balance the two?

Consistency is important, even when talking about more modest or general goals. Weight loss or movement for long term health (Physical and Mental) benefits, say. Weight loss and management don’t just happen all on their own and getting and staying active is a big part in managing energy balance. And, again, there are mounds of research about the benefits that consistent movement can provide.

Rest and recovery are still important, though. Recovery is generally necessary when either intensity, duration, or volume of exercise is high enough to cause some micro trauma that they body needs to repair. This type of exercise is usually associated with more specific goals. Recovery can include lighter intensity and duration workouts or active recovery like mobility work and is designed to keep you moving toward your goal while letting your body, you know, recover.

Practically this means that you lifted heavy enough weight that you feel the DOMS and it isn’t smart to re-stress that muscle until it repairs. Or maybe you took a really long run and you need to make sure that you replenish glycogen by taking a walk and refueling before you go the distance again.

But rest is necessary regardless. Even with the generally lower intensities, durations, and volumes associated with general exercise and movement goals, your body may not need recovery workouts, but it absolutely needs rest.

In the land of exercise and fitness, more somehow always equals more. Until it doesn’t and you are hurt. My advice is to understand right from the start that the human body needs rest time. No matter a client’s goals, I never recommend that they exercise all seven days per week. You should have a minimum of one true lay-on-the-couch-and-watch-Netflix rest day every single week.

And in truth, depending on what exact types of exercise you are doing and how your body recovers, you may need more. In fact, you may require more or less rest depending on how much sleep you’ve gotten, how much stress you are dealing with at the moment, your overall energy levels, and how hydrated and nourished you are.

Rest is not a bad thing. It is not the hindrance of consistency, it is in fact the compliment of it. Without proper rest, maintaining consistent exercise becomes much harder. Without the necessary repair time your body needs, workouts become more difficult to complete. The body will start to struggle and that will create a fun little downward spiral for your self-talk and the mental components of exercise.

Or you will go through the mental stress of talking yourself into working out when you don’t feel physically up to it. You will start to dread workouts and put inconsistent efforts in just to check them off your to-do list. Think of it this way, even if you like exercise and movement, you can have too much of a good thing. I mean ice cream is awesome, but if you forced yourself to eat it every day even when you didn’t want it, you’d start to dislike it eventually.

So my advice is to stop treating rest and consistency like opposites and start treating them like the complimentary and necessary components of a healthy relationship with movement that they are.

What do you like to do on your rest days? Tell us in the comments and until next time, be well friends!