“You don’t want to spend your day sitting on the couch, especially if you have a sedentary job, but you also don’t want to do anything that pushes you or elevates your heart rate too much,” he said.ĭoing light activity is called active rest, Wickham said, as this movement increases blood flow, boosts the delivery of nutrients to muscles, and encourages lymph flow to ferry out waste from your body. (Related: The Best Workout Mat From Nike to Shop Now) If you go the yoga route, aim for a more relaxing session, suggested Grayson Wickham, D.P.T., C.S.C.S.

It can also be mobility work such as foam rolling or dynamic stretches, or a yoga class.

Over time, these physiological changes will help to improve your performance.ĭepending on the volume and intensity of your weekly workouts, you don’t have to completely avoid activity.įor example, rest might look like a gentle 15- to 20-minute walk or an easy bike ride around the neighborhood with your kids. These types of workouts also improve the body’s ability to deliver oxygen-rich blood to muscles and pull from fat stores to fuel a workout. Olenick said that cardio workouts stimulate new or more mitochondria ( cells that generate energy) and small blood vessels. Then, there’s cardiovascular adaptations that happen during recovery. Immune cells, blood flow and nutrients are transported to muscle cells, which helps to increase muscle growth and strength when resistance training is a focal part of training. “Our muscles are having an acute inflammatory response that helps facilitate the muscle repair process,” she said. If you’re not sure how many rest days to take each week to build muscle, consider what’s happening in your body during those recovery periods. “We make our gains while training, but we need rest and recovery for our body to heal from that training and make adaptations.”

“Taking one or two days off can help you recover more and make more progress,” Olenick said. It can be strange to think that resting is your ticket to getting faster and stronger - and reaching your fitness goals.

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