Listen to your body
You can see it on the faces of women at your gym: Mentally and physically exhausted but slogging through a workout at half speed and intensity. Perhaps you’ve been there too. Maybe it was the only way to have some release from the stresses of life but what if you or someone you know is pushing themselves into the red zone weekly or even daily?
It’s taken me a long time to adopt the idea of exercise as being good to my body and not punishing it because I see it as heavy, ugly or it makes me you uncomfortable. A big part of honoring your body and all wonderful ways it performs is to not skimp on the rest it needs.
I like weight lifting but since it is not a restorative sport I need my rest. When I started training in power lifting I still wanted to CrossFit 5 days a week like I had been. I learned after just one day of CrossFit and no rest day in between I was operating on 75% of the strength I could recruit from a well-rested body. The percentage would decline from there for each day I over trained and got frustrated as to why I wasn’t making bigger gains.
Rest Does a Body Good
It has taken me 30 years to start prioritizing my rest as much as my exercise and tuning into my body. When I start to feel mentally and physically drained I am always on the brink of crying as I feel overly sensitive. I used to show up for class, my coach would correct my form and I’d almost burst into tears I felt so judged. I finally realized this feeling means I’m in the red zone. Now when I’m at my office job feeling tired I picture my coach critiquing my form and imagine myself at the gym. Do I want to start crying or am I cool with the feedback? I know it sounds silly but it totally is how I can assess if I really need a rest day or two or sometimes three.
Action Steps:
1) Start listening to your body. If you’re feeling drained, overly tight, irritable or emotionally just not like yourself take a day off and do something good for your soul: Comfort tea, reading, going to dinner with a friend are a few things I like.
2) A rest day doesn’t mean you must be inactive, it means you are taking a full day off your sport. So if you’re a runner you are not running on your rest day. If I’ve been lifting heavy during my training an active rest day looks like swimming, walking or jogging the beach, mobilizing or yoga.
3) You’ll be amazed at the increase in your performance when you return from a day or two off. Sometimes extra sleep, hydration with light mobility or flexibility is what your body is calling for. You just have to honor it.