Rest days are SO crucial to your workout regime.

Ok, well Rest Days are so crucial to my regime and I honestly believe that they should be a requirement for you as well. First I want to be upfront and tell you that to me a ‘Rest’ day doesn’t mean lay around in bed all day, eating crappy foods, and vegging in front of the TV…but if that’s what it means to you, then more power to you! What a Rest day that looks like to me usually includes some kind of stretching or gentle yoga {love this video} and a leisurely walk with Kyle & Beckett. I just don’t feel good if I don’t do something but that isn’t to say I don’t have my days of saying ‘oh hellllll no’ to any sort of activity. It is all about listening to YOUR body. Super sore today after a strenuous workout yesterday? Exhausted from staying up until 3am to hit a deadline? Whatever your reasons are, you are truly the only one who knows what is right for your body and your mind each day.

As someone whose workouts are usually high-intensity and involve significant impact on my joints, especially my knees, going easy every once in a while is a necessity for me. Shape Magazine has a great article here that shares 9 reasons why it is OK to take a day off here & there and I am totally on-board with every single one of their reasons.

Your body needs time to recoup and recover.

Plus, burnout is a real thing. At least it has been for me. When I was training for my first Half-Marathon I got so burnt out from running that I honestly thought I may not run more than about 3 miles at a time ever again. I attribute 95% of that attitude to not taking proper care of myself and resting when I should’ve. I changed my mindset from ‘I HAVE to do this’ to ‘this is something I WANT to do’ and it made a mind-blowing difference. Taking a day off allows my body to reset and almost always results in me having a better-than-usual workout the following day. Sometimes I plan my off days and sometimes I just let them happen as they may. Last Thursday was one of those unexpected days actually! My alarm went off after a restless night of sleep {thanks to these horrible allergies that I still can’t get to go away!!!} and I just felt utterly exhausted. I had been to OrangeTheory twice already that week and a Pilates class plus I had squeezed in a quick evening run the night before so I told my alarm to piss-off and went back to sleep for another hour. And that extra hour felt A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. So worth it. I felt rejuvenated and well-rested on Friday morning when my alarm went off again and my body felt great for my AM HIIT routine.

My overall goal with Workout Wednesday posts is to be real. I want y’all to see what exercise and fitness means to me personally and how I choose to structure everything from my workouts to what I wear during them to what I fuel my body with prior to and after, etc. So hopefully each of you takes something away from my non-fitness-expert self! 😉

Shop the Look:

T-shirt (from a race, similar here on sale!) / Capris / Shoes / Watch