How Do Rest Days Work In Exercising?

Fallior

Fallior

Fapstronaut
I'm a fitness noob, so forgive me if this is a really basic question, but how do rest days work? I know you're generally supposed to have 20 minutes of exercise every day, but when working out, you are supposed to have rest days.
Let's say I did arms for 2 days for example, so now I'm supposed to have a rest day. Does that mean I rest for all exercise that day, or just rest from arm exercises for that day? And how does cardio fit into all of this? I know typically you're supposed to do some type of cardio every day for 20 minutes. So I'm wondering how rest days apply to that.
 
Usually a rest day means to do nothing and completely rest. Some people like to do some stretching on rest days or some cardio or maybe even go for a walk. I personally think stretching is a good thing to do on rest days but yeah doing nothing is fine.
 
Stevegregory said:
Usually a rest day means to do nothing and completely rest. Some people like to do some stretching on rest days or some cardio or maybe even go for a walk. I personally think stretching is a good thing to do on rest days but yeah doing nothing is fine.
Click to expand...

No.

How you rest is largely dependent on the regimen you're working off of. For example, I do a lighter legs day on Monday, Tuesday is chest, Wednesday is heavy legs and back, Thursday is arms and shoulders and Friday is a lighter back day. I also do 30 minutes of cardio following every workout, in my case I am using incline treadmill walking, which is a higher caloric burn than running while also being lower impact - I used to run three days a week after lifting and this is much more palatable.

My schedule works for me because I don't exercise the same muscle groups two days in a row. If you are doing something more full body in a workout session where you're working multiple muscle groups, then you would likely not want to lift every single day. Muscle is built during the recovery period (that's a vastly oversimplified statement but sufficient for our purposes) and rest is crucial to building strength and muscle, hence my program.
 
OK. Guess i know nothing you can clearly see from my picture that i have made gains and what i said works for me you idiot.
People like you make me cringe, A lighter back day and a heavy back day?? are you actually joking lol, please tell me you are joking.
 
Stevegregory said:
OK. Guess i know nothing you can clearly see from my picture that i have made gains and what i said works for me you idiot.
People like you make me cringe, A lighter back day and a heavy back day?? are you actually joking lol, please tell me you are joking.
Click to expand...

Keep doing nothing on your rest days, sweetie, let me know how that works out for you.
 
so you will sit here and tell me that not doing any exercise on rest day will prevent you from building muscle when i have done that from my own experience and built muscle lol? you joker.
 
Yep, it's that simple. Rest days are literally rest days, no exercise. Your muscles need about 48 hours to grow and recover once you've exercised them intensely. This is why a lot of people (myself included) do splits. Focusing on different muscle groups everyday means we can skip rest days and lift for 5 days a week. And you can do light cardio everyday whether you workout or not. It's actually beneficial. But all of this really depends on what your goals are and your current body state.

PM me if you need help. Always happy to help!

DS.
 
Okay interesting. And yeah I've heard of both ways to do it, both doing nothing at all on rest days, or switching workouts each day to skip rest days while still resting the part of the body that was trained.
How does cardio rest days work with more intense cardio workouts? Would walking still be okay to do on a rest day while still allowing those muscles trained from cardio to build the muscles it used?
 
You're kind of over complicating things, there's really no real way to do anything in fitness, it's all down to your personal preference.If you are eating enough calories, getting enough sleep and rest and lifting weights properly you will build muscle.
If you want to do cardio on a rest day that's fine, if you wanna do it after a lifting session that's fine too most people would probably be too tired to that but again it's all up to you. I kind of don't really understand what you are asking?
 
Well I mean like, there was a point when I was doing cardio every single day for awhile and was losing weight at a reasonable pace each month, then when I plateaued, all of a sudden I started gaining all the weight right back to when I first started despite my fitness and diet not changing. I know people plateau after awhile, but they usually don't gain all their weight and stomach fat back as well so I knew it wasn't normal, I just couldn't understand why. I was told that one of the reasons could have been that I didn't take any rest days.
 
Okay so what about those that exercise arms 1 day for example and take 2 rest days before they do arms again compared to those who exercise arms 2 days in a row and then take 1 rest day before they do it again? I've heard both ways are good, but if it takes 48 hours to fully recover, would that make the 2 rest days a better choice?
 
Stevegregory said:
OK. Guess i know nothing you can clearly see from my picture that i have made gains and what i said works for me you idiot.
People like you make me cringe, A lighter back day and a heavy back day?? are you actually joking lol, please tell me you are joking.
Click to expand...

I was so eager to reply to your post since I really enjoy talking about dieting, training, nutrition and other aspects of lifting, but your attitude towards someone who was trying to help you is very distasteful. In the meantime, learn some manners while you enjoy your noob gains lol:p. And once you've reached a plateau and decide to come here asking for help again, have some more respect and perhaps you'll get some more responses from other people in this community.
 
I go by the rule of thumb "no work out program will help you if you don't have the diet to match it".

I have the tendency, more often than not, to suffer from too little training and too much rest, so I'm beginning to incorporate an hour of cardio every day except for weight training days. There is an element of cardio in resistance training if you're exerting yourself hard enough and the hormonal benefits are helpful as well. I think the rest concern should only be if you feel that post-work out "knock out", BUT, the scientific literature says 48 hours to full recovery of muscle tissue.
 
@Joseph_Merrick Have you not actually read this thread you idiot? i gave the OP advice and some other guy completely dismissed it and said i was wrong and somehow i am rude , i didn't ask anyone for advice you fucking dumb prick lol , are you actually serious?

Noob gains? Ok then, i somehow think that from going from a skinny ectomorph to gaining 3 stone of weight isn't noob gains.

Oh and by the way why don't you try reading the thread before you post to stop you from making yourself look like an idiot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top