The fifth day: Why rest counts as part of a workout

First of all, my apologies for our technical issues yesterday. We’ve since resolved them and are now back to our regular posting schedule.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a series of articles about the four day workout. In it, I described a relatively simple workout that was split up over four days with each day working a different part of the body. I also mentioned that the fifth day could be used for rest or for an additional workout. Yesterday, I got an email from a reader asking me which one I would recommend, rest or workout.

Why rest? 

The reason for rest is because our bodies need a period of no activity in order to recover.  Even if you’re not working out the same part of your body every day, you’re still straining it overall.  You’re still wearing out some areas every single day.  For example, our feet and legs are strained with almost any kind of workout.  Our hands are worn down by holding weights even if we’re working on our chest or back.  Our circulatory system is exhausted from keeping up with the demand for blood and oxygen during all of our cardio workouts.   So in order to let all of these systems recover, we need to spend a day resting.

Without proper rest, our muscles do not recover.  This means that your performance won’t improve and you’ll find yourself more and more tired.  It’s not the “I need sleep” kind of tired, it’s the “my body is worn out” feeling where you can barely move your legs and everything seems to ache just a little bit.  In other words, resting is actually a crucial part of any workout routine since it allows our bodies to reap the rewards of the workout.  Without the rest, all we’re doing is slowly wearing ourselves down.

Why another workout?

Why should you spend another day working out when you’ve spent four days covering all the major areas of your body?  Well, because this additional workout day can provide you with a chance to do all of the things you couldn’t during the week.  Now is the time to check out new types of exercises and see if you like them.  Now is the time to try out a higher weight or speed and see if you can maintain it.  You can even use this time to experiment with all new types of workouts.  Maybe you could go to the pool and try out water aerobics or finally attend that spinning class.  An extra day can also be a great time to work on a specific area that you’re having issues with.  You can spend it doing some extra leg exercises if you feel that’s your weak point or some more sets of back workouts if you’re having issues improving your performance in that area.

So which one should I pick, rest or extra workout?

The answer really depends on the rest of your week.   You need at least one rest day, and preferably two, during each week.  Are you going to get that?  For example, I work out during the week.  So when I consider what to do with my extra day, I’m going to take into account my plans for the weekend.  Do those plans involve a lot of physical activity?  If so, then I should use my extra weekday as a rest day.  If the weekend plans are relatively sedate, then I’ll have another workout.

This weekend I’m going to be volunteering at a horse show on Saturday which means a lot of time spent walking around, and carrying heavy loads.  On Sunday I’m going to be hiking.  Both of these activities are physically demanding and place quite a bit of strain on my body, especially my legs and feet.  So I didn’t work out yesterday because I wanted to give my body a day of rest.  Last weekend I spent most of my time at home working on various computer related issues.  That’s a low strain activity, so I actually worked out five days that week since I knew I would get my necessary rest on the weekend.

Summary

Always rest at least one day every week.  That means zero or minimal physical activity that day.  If you know you’re going to get that day, then by all means, add an extra day of workout to your routine.

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