But what if we never take the rest we need? Then our muscles can’t recover, can’t get stronger, and can’t grow! That’s no good!!!
So what does “rest” look like? It takes several forms, all of which are important to getting the most bang for your workout buck.
First, rest obviously takes the form of sleep. At night, while you are asleep, your muscles get the most rest, recovery, and growth. If you are depriving yourself of sleep, it will not only make you feel lousy and deplete your energy, but it can slow your results. Most people need 7 hours of sleep to function best. Some like more (some like a lot more), but honestly that’s just a habit more than a “need” for sleep. Some can actually get by with less than 7 hours — studies have found that 10% of people can actually function with no ill effects on 5 hours of sleep with no accumulated sleep deprivation symptoms — but that was ONLY 10%! Many of us like to think we are in that 10%, but in fact we are sleep deprived and hurting our body’s ability to run at 100%.
Trust me, getting 7 hours of sleep takes work for me. I get up at 4:30 every morning to read, workout, and answer questions that were posted on my website overnight. So that means I need to be lights out at 9:30 — that doesn’t always happen. And with 5 small kids, there are nights where I’m up once, twice, three times a lady …. (bad song reference — maybe I’m sleep deprived!).
But I monitor how much I’m sleeping, and if I have a couple short nights (5-6 hours), I make an extra effort to make it up by getting 8 hours for a couple nights, because sleep deprivation is an accumulated symptom. The longer you go, the more run-down you’ll get.
Second, rest takes the form of recovery time between lifting workouts. This is the good old “48 hour rule” — the rule that plays havoc with our hybrid schedules LOL! Simply put, if you do resistance lifting for your biceps on Day 1, then your biceps need to rest on day 2. You can work them again on Day 3 (48 hours later). This is why most hybrid schedules (and the original P90X schedule) will alternate lift days and cardio days. Lifting on consecutive days can be done if it does NOT overlap the muscle groups (one good example is the workouts “Chest/Shoulders/Tris” and “Back/Bis” — those can be done on consecutive days). But you can’t do pullups one day, then curls as part of the next day. And you can’t do pushups one day, then tricep work the next. You may think that by training harder, lifting more often, that you will build more muscle, but the opposite is true! Follow the 48 hour rule!
By alternating lift and cardio days, as well as taking a rest day or an ab-only day, it also gives your joints and ligaments some good spacing between being worked hard. I prefer to do 3 lift days, 2 cardio days, and 2 ab-only days. This keeps my knees ankles (yes, I’m an old man LOL!) from getting sore, keeps my muscles from wearing down, and still keeps me pushing play and seeing results every day.
Finally, it’s important every few weeks to rest from your regular routine. This is where the recovery week comes in. It isn’t a week off — in fact, it’s pretty much just as intense as the other weeks. But it’s a change of pace, with different workouts and different points of emphasis, so that your body doesn’t get into a set routine and stagnate. I’ve written a whole article on the importance of the recovery week if you’d like to read more about that, but in a nutshell — YES, you need to do your recovery week! Don’t skip it!
In conclusion, should you bring it with every fiber of your being when you workout? ABSOLUTELY! Should you go as hard as you can? ABSOLUTELY! But should you also be smart enough to let your body heal from that assault and get stronger before you brutalize it again? You bet!
*Side note — this does not refer to the soreness you will feel the first couple weeks you are on the program. You can’t “rest” until the soreness goes away before doing the next workout. The first couple weeks are a shock to the system and you need to stick to the schedule as your body adjusts to what it’s capable of doing.
I hope this makes sense and reminds you of yet another important aspect to maximizing your results!
Need a coach?
My email: coachwayne@teamripped.com
IG: @wayne_wyatt
