When should you rest?

Let me extend another gracious thank you to all those who took the time to read and comment on my last post, i'm blessed to have you give me your time!

On the heels of last week's post I feel it is important to discuss the topic of rest. Having spent the last year straight exercising I've come to understand the power and necessity of rest. Whether it be in the form of active rest or flip your feet up on the couch rest, it has a function.

But when do your rest? What are the signs and symptoms that your body requires a little R&R? TLC? RICE?

There are several clear indicators that anyone can use to evaluate whether or not they should take it easy or go hard. Along with these examples I will also provide a few indicators that can be used when using smart watches and HR trackers.

Exhaustion:

This may seem abundantly obvious, but a sign that most people ignore. There seems to be this overwhelming need to get after it even when you're down in the dumps. Some sort of toxic masculinity that's seeped into the fitness industry and polluting the minds of many young athletes / exercise practitioners.

The first sign of the need for rest is just simply being tired. Your bodies reaction to lack of sleep, over use of muscles, and lack of energy is the production of melatonin and the direct ploy to make you rest. If you're out of it and quite simply feel tired, that's a clear indicator that you should take the day off.

Lacking drive:

Usually found hand in hand with exhaustion, lacking drive is another indicator that it may be time to take it easy. If you're usually gun-ho about getting to the gym or get fired up when you're about to lift some heavy a$$ sh!t, but now you could give two cents about being in the gym or lifting. Then it's a good sign you need to relax. In these situations, I recommend getting through your warm-up and re-evaluating afterwards. Sometimes it takes a little movement to spark the fuse. If you find some motivation but still lack the full throttle drive to crush your workout, then focus on working through all sets and reps but at a reduced load. Take it as an opportunity to improve technique and quality of sets.

Loss of strength:

Whether you've been in a long strength block or you've been prepping for an event of some sort, the long arduous days of back-to-back trainings can certainly take a tole on the mind and body. Even if you aren't prepping for anything and you're just being abundantly active day in and day out, eventually the volume of work will catch up to you. One of the signs is the loss of strength. This isn't the total loss of strength, from 100-0. But the loss of relative strength. If you had been seeing steady progress week to week and all of a sudden notice you can't lift what you did 1-2 weeks prior, this may be a sign your body needs rest. Don't think however that just because you can't lift more means you need a break. In theory we can only progressively overload to a certain extent. It would be in the scenario in which you can't lift the same as the weeks prior, warm-ups feel exceedingly heavy, and your technique begins failing far short of where it normally would.

For experienced lifters, you'll know when this occurs. For the less experienced, it will become clearer as you spend more time following a specific program.

Poor Sleep:

By now it should be clear that sleep is the dominant factor in recovery. Getting enough sleep, more importantly enough quality sleep, should be the priority of any fitness practitioner (athlete or not). If you had a big training day, you ate well, stayed hydrated, and got to bed at a decent hour (accumulating 8-10hrs), but still wake up groggy and feeling like a turd on a log, then it's a good sign you need to take a break. Like the "lacking drive" category, I recommend getting out of bed, having your morning coffee, and seeing how you feel. Somedays those first few moments aren't the best representation of how the rest of your day will go. But nonetheless, listen to your body.

If you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, it's a good sign you need to rest.

Starving:

If you are feeling extra hungry then you may be in a state of hyper-recovery. Firstly, let's recall the difference between hunger and appetite. Hunger is a definitive call for nourishment by your body with no particular hankering for specific foods. Whereas appetite is the craving for specific, particularly non-nutritious, foods. When you see a cinnamon bun and feel uncontrollable hunger...that's appetite. When you're on your way home from work listening to a podcast about chimpanzees and a wave of gut wrenching gurgles pass over you...that's hunger.

So, if you wake up feeling hungry it may be a clear sign that your body needs to recover.

Alrighty, for the most part if you experience any of these signs and symptoms then it's a strong indicator you need to throttle back and rest up.

Nowadays virtually everyone has access to medical grade technology that allows for relatively accurate tracking of heart-rate, caloric expenditure, and recently the introduction of heart rate variability and strain.

Thanks to the creators at Whoop, people are now able to track their sleep consistency, latency, and efficiency. They can monitor heart rate variability, caloric expenditure, and heart strain.

For those who own a Whoop knowing when to rest is rather simple. After a nights sleep you will get a recovery percentage based on your heart rate variability, sleep latency, and sleep efficiency. From 0-100% it is rather self explanatory when it comes to how prepped you are to take on strain. 0-40% = meh, 40-60% decent ,60-100% Great!

For those however, who do not own a Whoop but do have access to any smart watch or hear rate tracker can easily determine if they're primed for an active day or a rest day. Heart rate variability can easily be determined just via simple monitoring.

Everyday when you get up, open your eyes and stay still for 1-3 mins. Have a gander at your smart watch and record your resting heart rate. Let's say its 60. If you've had a long week of tough workouts and are beginning to wonder if the effects are taking a tole on the ole heart, have a look at your resting heart rate. If over the course of 1-3 days you've noticed a spike in your morning resting heart rate, it is a clear sign that the body is in need of recovery. Rest up and check the reading the next few days. If it returns to baseline (example was 60bpm) than you've recovered appropriately.

Most importantly, know your body and react based on how it feels. You are one and the same, so treat yourself with respect. Feeling tired, dusted, and just damn out of it? REST!

Your device is clearly indicating you need to rest...well...rest!

Listen and react.

"Progression is built through consistency and tested by passion"

JB