Rest days are important, because that’s basically the period when your body recovers and cope up with the gains. Just because you’ve made it through four or five days straight, doesn’t mean your body won’t give up. You can take off from the gym without losing muscle, anyway, so why not take advantage of it?
You might have noticed that we always tell you to not overtrain. It’s because overtraining can result to injuries, muscle soreness, and amenorrhea, or the irregular menstrual cycle. It can also result in dehydration. Basically, it does more harm than good.
Here are more reasons to have a rest day, as discussed by Emily Skye:
7 REASONS YOU NEED TO SKIP THAT WORKOUT AND REST
One of the biggest and most common mistakes I see girls make when they start training is not allowing the body to rest when it needs to. They think that by pushing through and continuously exercising is going to get them their results even quicker. However this couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact overtraining can do more damage then good on the body, and taking rest is just as important for results as the exercise itself. In all of my programs I have scheduled rest days to make sure your body gets what it needs and you can continue to get the results you desire. So if you are one of those exercise junkies here are some important reasons you need to (sometimes) skip that workout. Read more…
Since we’ve established that rest days are important, what you need to know is to how to gain or maintain muscle even on your break. Sean Hyson shares some strategies on Men’s Fitness:
3 WAYS REST CAN POSITIVELY IMPACT YOUR WORKOUT
You love your rest periods. Sometimes they’re the best part of a workout—those brief respites between sets of a hard lift that allow you to catch your breath, get a drink, and scroll through your Instagram feed. Read more…
Lastly, Flex has a very informational article on how much time you can take a break:
Take a Break…or Not?
How much time is OK to take off from the gym without losing muscle and strength? Researchers randomly divided young men into either a continuous resistance training group or a periodic resistance-training group (i.e., taking a break). Read more…
In conclusion, you can take off from the gym without losing muscle for a few days, even up to weeks, just make sure you still have the mindset that you’re going back to working out. Some people lack motivation after a long rest, but there are ways to bring it back!
A few signs to watch out for that shows you’re overtraining include altered resting heart rate, too much thirst, muscle soreness and insomnia. It can also affect your brain by causing depression, loss of concentration, and personality changes. Lowered self esteem and motivation are also a sign.
So it’s definitely okay if you stop for a few days or weeks. Even Superman needed to rest!
The post Take Off From the Gym Without Losing Muscle appeared first on NUTRITIONCLUB.
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