Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Rest Week = the Best Week

From now on, I have decided to implement scheduled rest weeks in to my workout plan. After taking all of last week off to rest and recharge, I'm wondering why I didn't do it sooner! I got the original idea from what I usually do with running. After every six weeks, it's recommended that the 7th week you take your usual weekly mileage and cut it in half. It's meant to be for recovery and to prevent injuries. 

Well then I got the idea to do that for my workouts in general. The combination of running and lifting 6 days a week can take a toll on my body. I always take Sundays off for full rest days and while that definitely helps, it can still all catch up to me. 

I started to notice a pattern where there would be a week where I would just be exhausted. I had little motivation to workout and when I pushed myself, it wasn't worth it. I was way too tired and my workouts suffered from it. I realized the trend which eventually lead me to the idea of a rest week. 

Just taking it easy, focus on stretching, and maybe a couple of light workouts. 

It made all the difference for me!  

I'm the type of person who doesn't have to think twice about working out. I have my workout planned, I wake up in the morning, and I'm excited to get moving! I truly love it, and wouldn't do it otherwise. Well, I noticed that when it was all getting to me I would have second thoughts about working out when I woke up. I was too tempted to push back my alarm and sleep in more. My body wasn't feeling it at all, and it was a struggle to get my butt out of bed. When I'm questioning if I want to workout, losing motivation, or any second thoughts then I know something is up.

Getting up at 5am during the week and since I've lost all ability to sleep in, I don't really get to catch up on sleep during the weekends. I know women who get up at 3:30-4am to workout and honestly my jaw drops at those times! So all you lovely people out there kicking butt before 5am, you're the real MVPs :)

I used to hate/be scared of rest days, and the thought of taking a whole week of them would have given me an anxiety attack, but now I love them. Once I switched my perspective to look at them for benefiting my health, preventing injury, and as an investment in my future health then that made all the difference.

I took all of last week off to sleep in, stretch, do some yoga, recharge, and I feel 100 times better this week! My workouts are back to kicking butt, I feel refreshed, and I'm so glad I took the time to focus on resting up. Towards the end of the week, I did start to miss my lifts and runs so this week I'm even extra excited to be back to the usual grind.

I already have the next week scheduled on my calendar haha!

Hope you're all having a wonderful Wednesday!

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