Hey Claire here….
So – today – I wanted to talk to you about why you MUST take rest days.
Very very often we see an all or nothing approach in most of our clients. We (including myself at points in the past) either go hell for leather or it stops altogether. We flip flop between the extremes. And whilst it’s great to have a regular programme of exercise that you love and enjoy – we must rest in order to get the gains! In fact you could be seriously undoing all your hard work if you don’t – and creating problems for yourself further down the line.
So now I’ll tell you why. When you work your muscles during a weights workout, you actually make tiny tears in the muscle fibres. The body uses the nutrients you’ve consumed to give you energy to do this.
It’s only at REST that your body has time to repair and grow the muscle fibres – using something called protein synthesis. When I say grow – I DO NOT mean everyone will BULK! I mean the muscles will become stronger, leaner and more toned – giving you the body shape you desire.
So number 1 – rest is important to looking lean and feeling strong.
Number 2 – overtraining puts massive strain on the CNS (Central Nervous System) and can lead to over production of insulin, which can then lead to a rise in cortisol (the stress hormone). When this happens – in extreme cases, you can move into a adrenal fatigue state and your body will actually HANG ON to fat. We often see this when people do too much cardio. I once did this to myself so I know all too well!
Every person is different and from doing my DNA tests on clients – it seems we have varying levels of rest requirements. I have very little need for rest, but I have a high injury risk. So I can train frequently but need to be careful of over training and hurting myself!
You just need to listen to your body and if you’ve hit a plateau it could be that you’re not resting enough. You’re not giving the muscle time to repair. And you’re not giving your body time to recover from cardio sessions.
I hope this helps some of you out there and if you’re looking for more personalised coaching and guidance from James and I, you can join the Academy now for free for 5 days and cancel at any time.
Please feel free to share this with anyone you think needs a REST!
Much love, Claire x
