Taking a Well-Earned Day Off

Let’s face it: sports is about a lot of hard work. Winning in your event or your next big game is all about putting in the time and effort to build the right muscles and build up endurance to last for the big play. Given all of that, how could taking a day off possibly help an athlete get better?

Well, the fact is that those hard-working muscles, no matter how well-conditioned, sometimes need a break. I’ve learned this through the almost five years that I have been running long-distance workouts. Running for me is really fun. Sometimes, it is tempting to run every day, especially when my times are looking good and I’m feeling really strong in my workouts. That’s kind of where I am today actually, with two good weeks of really solid running since my last day off. So why should I stop for a minute, let alone a day?

The importance of rest in athletes is that those muscles can use the day to rebuild the small tears that hard exercise of practice makes. Don’t worry, these tears aren’t harmful. Given the right rest, the tears repair to make the muscle better than it was before. This, an not more tears from constant work, is what builds muscles up. Basically, it’s the rest that makes us stronger from the work we do.

What kind of training do you do for your sports? When do you take rest days? Tell us if taking a day helps you perform better or if working everyday is really your thing!