Nine Signs You Need a Rest Day
Patrick Dale, PT, ex-Marine
5 hours ago
Of all the things you need to build muscle, get stronger, burn fat, or get fit, consistency is arguably the most important.
It doesn’t matter how carefully you plan your training or how balanced your diet is; if you don’t keep punching the clock and doing what needs to be done, your progress will be slow or even non-existent.
Ultimately, your body only responds to what you ask it to do. This is the fitness law of specificity. If you train hard and often, your body will adapt by getting fitter, stronger, and more muscular.
But, if you skip more workouts than you complete, your body has less reason to adapt and grow.
The bottom line is that consistency is often more important than finding the perfect workout or diet. Even the “wrong” program can produce great results if you do it often enough and with sufficient intensity.
That said, consistency can be a double-edged sword, and sometimes taking an unplanned day off may actually do you good. However, you need to be able to differentiate between feeling lazy and actually needing an extra rest day or two.
We reveal the top nine signs that you need a rest day.
The Top Nine Signs You Need a Rest Day
Exercise Break
While sticking to your training schedule is usually a good thing, there are several signs that suggest the last thing you need is another punishing workout.
Intense exercise takes a lot out of your body, and it needs time to repair, recover and adapt after your workouts. There is a fine line between training hard enough to maximize gains and working so hard that you cannot recover.
Plowing on despite needing more rest can lead to overtraining syndrome, which is a chronic condition that can take many weeks or even months to overcome.
However, taking an unplanned rest day can help you avoid the overtraining trap and keep your training and gaining for the foreseeable future.
The following signs may indicate you need to skip training and take an extra rest day.
1. Reduced grip strength
It can be hard to know you are still tired from your last workout before you start your next one. After all, it’s only when you start training that you realize you aren’t feeling as strong or energetic as you should.
While you could abort your workout and go home, most people will push on regardless, making the problem worse.
Testing your grip strength before a workout could save you an unnecessary trip to the gym. Your grip force is an excellent indicator of the condition of the rest of your body.
You can test your grip strength with a cheap, readily available hand grip dynamometer. Take readings every day for a week to establish your average grip strength. Then, if you notice your score is more than ten percent lower than average, this suggests an extra day off will probably do you good.
2. Increased resting heart rate
Resting Heart Rate Chart
Fit, healthy individuals usually have a lower resting heart rate (RHR) than their non-exercising compatriots. It’s not uncommon for well-conditioned people to have an RHR of 60, 50, or even 40 beats per minute (BPM), compared to the population average of 72 BPM.
However, if your RHR is 5-10 beats or ten percent higher than usual, it could indicate you are overtired and should take a rest day. A higher-than-usual RHR can also be an indicator that your body is fighting off the early stages of an illness, e.g., a cold.
Either way, if your RHR is higher than usual, take it as a sign that you may need an extra rest day.
The best time to take your resting heart rate is shortly after you wake up but before you get out of bed. Alternatively, you can use your smartwatch or fitness tracker to show trends in resting heart rate variance.
Related: Calculate Your Target Heart Rate
3. Even your warm-up feels hard
Warming up helps prepare your muscles and joints for what you are about to do. It may also lower your risk of injury. However, another lesser-known warm-up function is it allows you to assess your current condition and decide whether you are okay to train.
Typically, before doing their first heavy set, most lifters ramp up the weight over several warm-up sets, e.g.:
20kg/45lbs x 10 (empty bar)
40kg/90lbs x 8
60kg/135lbs x 6
80kg/175lbs x 3
100kg/220lbs x 5 (first heavy work set)
Warming up in this fashion helps fire up your nervous system so that the first heavy set is less of a shock. While it probably won’t feel light, your first work set should feel manageable.
However, if even your warm-up sets feel heavy, you should take this as a sign that you are tired and probably need a rest day. Pushing yourself through your workout will only increase your fatigue and could even lead to injury.
4. Familiar exercises or skills feel awkward
Main Doing Barbell Curls
Fatigue doesn’t only affect your muscles; it also affects your central nervous system, or CNS for short. Your CNS comprises your brain and spinal cord and controls your peripheral nervous system (PNS), which in turn controls your muscles.
CNS fatigue will not only lower your potential for force production, making you weaker, but will also affect neurological fitness components such as balance and coordination.
So, if familiar movements feel awkward or more challenging than usual, e.g., standing on one leg, it’s a good indicator you need more rest and not a workout.
5. You are dreading your next workout
We all have days when we’d rather drink coffee and watch TV than sweat it out in the gym. But, once you’re actually there, you’ll be glad you went and feel terrific afterward. Giving in to your impulse to skip training would be an act of laziness.
However, if you are physically dreading your workout, you are probably suffering from fatigue and need a rest day. Not wanting to work out is a strong indicator that you are tired, and pushing yourself to train will potentially do more harm than good.
That said, you must be able to differentiate between laziness and really needing a rest day. Laziness is almost entirely psychological, whereas needing a rest day is more physical.
6. You’re craving high-energy foods
Drinking Coffee
Your body is incredibly intuitive and is constantly sending you signals about what’s going on inside. Thirst tells you that you could be dehydrated and need more water while yawning lets you know you could probably do with a nap!
Uncharacteristic cravings for high-energy foods could be an indicator that your body is feeling low on energy and is after a fast-acting boost. However, simply eating something sugary probably won’t be enough to offset fatigue, so you should skip the candy bar and have an extra rest day instead.
7. You are sleepier than normal
Most adults need between 7-9 hours of sleep per night. This should leave you feeling refreshed, energized, and ready to face the day, including your workouts. However, despite sleeping well, if you wake up feeling tired or find yourself craving a nap, it could suggest that you need a day off more than you need a workout.
Disrupted sleep is also a common symptom of overtraining, so if you’re tired but still unable to sleep, you definitely need to back-off your workouts.
8. Your joints are achy
Joint Pain
Muscle soreness is NOT a good indicator of fatigue. Muscles can feel sore just because you’ve done a new exercise or used an unfamiliar training method. Most lifters experience muscle soreness on a regular basis, and while it’s not an indicator of a successful workout, nor does it mean you’ve overdone it and need extra rest.
In contrast, achy joints are a better indicator that you need some extra rest. We’re talking non-specific joint pain here and not the pain you get from injury.
Non-specific joint pain is often caused by systemic inflammation and made worse by fatigue. So, if your knees, hips, lower back, shoulders, or elbows are uncharacteristically achy or stiff, you will probably benefit from an unplanned day off.
9. You feel unwell
Training while ill may win you a bravery medal from the gym bros, but it’s often a sign you need to take a day off.
When you are unwell, your body must divert vital resources to your immune system to help you get better. But, if you also exercise, those resources will be more thinly spread, and you could end up being ill for longer.
Also, training while sick means your body will have less energy for recovery and repair, making your workout less productive.
This makes training when you’re sick a lose-lose scenario.
In most cases, it’s better to rest when you feel unwell so you recover faster and avoid unproductive workouts. Return to the gym when you feel better, and your body can cope with the demands of your training.
Related: The Hierarchy of Successful Hypertrophy Training
How to Avoid Needing Unplanned Rest Days
Unplanned and extra rest days are sometimes unavoidable. We all have days where, for inexplicable reasons, our energy levels are low, and a workout will only make things worse. Taking a day off is sometimes the smart thing to do!
However, if you often feel the need to skip training, something in your workout schedule, diet, or lifestyle is probably out of whack. Fixing any problems could mean needing fewer unplanned rest days, making your training more productive in the process.
Patrick Dale, PT, ex-Marine
5 hours ago
Of all the things you need to build muscle, get stronger, burn fat, or get fit, consistency is arguably the most important.
It doesn’t matter how carefully you plan your training or how balanced your diet is; if you don’t keep punching the clock and doing what needs to be done, your progress will be slow or even non-existent.
Ultimately, your body only responds to what you ask it to do. This is the fitness law of specificity. If you train hard and often, your body will adapt by getting fitter, stronger, and more muscular.
But, if you skip more workouts than you complete, your body has less reason to adapt and grow.
The bottom line is that consistency is often more important than finding the perfect workout or diet. Even the “wrong” program can produce great results if you do it often enough and with sufficient intensity.
That said, consistency can be a double-edged sword, and sometimes taking an unplanned day off may actually do you good. However, you need to be able to differentiate between feeling lazy and actually needing an extra rest day or two.
We reveal the top nine signs that you need a rest day.
The Top Nine Signs You Need a Rest Day
Exercise Break
While sticking to your training schedule is usually a good thing, there are several signs that suggest the last thing you need is another punishing workout.
Intense exercise takes a lot out of your body, and it needs time to repair, recover and adapt after your workouts. There is a fine line between training hard enough to maximize gains and working so hard that you cannot recover.
Plowing on despite needing more rest can lead to overtraining syndrome, which is a chronic condition that can take many weeks or even months to overcome.
However, taking an unplanned rest day can help you avoid the overtraining trap and keep your training and gaining for the foreseeable future.
The following signs may indicate you need to skip training and take an extra rest day.
1. Reduced grip strength
It can be hard to know you are still tired from your last workout before you start your next one. After all, it’s only when you start training that you realize you aren’t feeling as strong or energetic as you should.
While you could abort your workout and go home, most people will push on regardless, making the problem worse.
Testing your grip strength before a workout could save you an unnecessary trip to the gym. Your grip force is an excellent indicator of the condition of the rest of your body.
You can test your grip strength with a cheap, readily available hand grip dynamometer. Take readings every day for a week to establish your average grip strength. Then, if you notice your score is more than ten percent lower than average, this suggests an extra day off will probably do you good.
2. Increased resting heart rate
Resting Heart Rate Chart
Fit, healthy individuals usually have a lower resting heart rate (RHR) than their non-exercising compatriots. It’s not uncommon for well-conditioned people to have an RHR of 60, 50, or even 40 beats per minute (BPM), compared to the population average of 72 BPM.
However, if your RHR is 5-10 beats or ten percent higher than usual, it could indicate you are overtired and should take a rest day. A higher-than-usual RHR can also be an indicator that your body is fighting off the early stages of an illness, e.g., a cold.
Either way, if your RHR is higher than usual, take it as a sign that you may need an extra rest day.
The best time to take your resting heart rate is shortly after you wake up but before you get out of bed. Alternatively, you can use your smartwatch or fitness tracker to show trends in resting heart rate variance.
Related: Calculate Your Target Heart Rate
3. Even your warm-up feels hard
Warming up helps prepare your muscles and joints for what you are about to do. It may also lower your risk of injury. However, another lesser-known warm-up function is it allows you to assess your current condition and decide whether you are okay to train.
Typically, before doing their first heavy set, most lifters ramp up the weight over several warm-up sets, e.g.:
20kg/45lbs x 10 (empty bar)
40kg/90lbs x 8
60kg/135lbs x 6
80kg/175lbs x 3
100kg/220lbs x 5 (first heavy work set)
Warming up in this fashion helps fire up your nervous system so that the first heavy set is less of a shock. While it probably won’t feel light, your first work set should feel manageable.
However, if even your warm-up sets feel heavy, you should take this as a sign that you are tired and probably need a rest day. Pushing yourself through your workout will only increase your fatigue and could even lead to injury.
4. Familiar exercises or skills feel awkward
Main Doing Barbell Curls
Fatigue doesn’t only affect your muscles; it also affects your central nervous system, or CNS for short. Your CNS comprises your brain and spinal cord and controls your peripheral nervous system (PNS), which in turn controls your muscles.
CNS fatigue will not only lower your potential for force production, making you weaker, but will also affect neurological fitness components such as balance and coordination.
So, if familiar movements feel awkward or more challenging than usual, e.g., standing on one leg, it’s a good indicator you need more rest and not a workout.
5. You are dreading your next workout
We all have days when we’d rather drink coffee and watch TV than sweat it out in the gym. But, once you’re actually there, you’ll be glad you went and feel terrific afterward. Giving in to your impulse to skip training would be an act of laziness.
However, if you are physically dreading your workout, you are probably suffering from fatigue and need a rest day. Not wanting to work out is a strong indicator that you are tired, and pushing yourself to train will potentially do more harm than good.
That said, you must be able to differentiate between laziness and really needing a rest day. Laziness is almost entirely psychological, whereas needing a rest day is more physical.
6. You’re craving high-energy foods
Drinking Coffee
Your body is incredibly intuitive and is constantly sending you signals about what’s going on inside. Thirst tells you that you could be dehydrated and need more water while yawning lets you know you could probably do with a nap!
Uncharacteristic cravings for high-energy foods could be an indicator that your body is feeling low on energy and is after a fast-acting boost. However, simply eating something sugary probably won’t be enough to offset fatigue, so you should skip the candy bar and have an extra rest day instead.
7. You are sleepier than normal
Most adults need between 7-9 hours of sleep per night. This should leave you feeling refreshed, energized, and ready to face the day, including your workouts. However, despite sleeping well, if you wake up feeling tired or find yourself craving a nap, it could suggest that you need a day off more than you need a workout.
Disrupted sleep is also a common symptom of overtraining, so if you’re tired but still unable to sleep, you definitely need to back-off your workouts.
8. Your joints are achy
Joint Pain
Muscle soreness is NOT a good indicator of fatigue. Muscles can feel sore just because you’ve done a new exercise or used an unfamiliar training method. Most lifters experience muscle soreness on a regular basis, and while it’s not an indicator of a successful workout, nor does it mean you’ve overdone it and need extra rest.
In contrast, achy joints are a better indicator that you need some extra rest. We’re talking non-specific joint pain here and not the pain you get from injury.
Non-specific joint pain is often caused by systemic inflammation and made worse by fatigue. So, if your knees, hips, lower back, shoulders, or elbows are uncharacteristically achy or stiff, you will probably benefit from an unplanned day off.
9. You feel unwell
Training while ill may win you a bravery medal from the gym bros, but it’s often a sign you need to take a day off.
When you are unwell, your body must divert vital resources to your immune system to help you get better. But, if you also exercise, those resources will be more thinly spread, and you could end up being ill for longer.
Also, training while sick means your body will have less energy for recovery and repair, making your workout less productive.
This makes training when you’re sick a lose-lose scenario.
In most cases, it’s better to rest when you feel unwell so you recover faster and avoid unproductive workouts. Return to the gym when you feel better, and your body can cope with the demands of your training.
Related: The Hierarchy of Successful Hypertrophy Training
How to Avoid Needing Unplanned Rest Days
Unplanned and extra rest days are sometimes unavoidable. We all have days where, for inexplicable reasons, our energy levels are low, and a workout will only make things worse. Taking a day off is sometimes the smart thing to do!
However, if you often feel the need to skip training, something in your workout schedule, diet, or lifestyle is probably out of whack. Fixing any problems could mean needing fewer unplanned rest days, making your training more productive in the process.
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Summary
Title: Nine Signs You Need a Rest Day
The text discusses the importance of consistency in fitness, emphasizing that it plays a crucial role in muscle building, strength gain, fat burning, and overall fitness. However, consistency can also lead to overtraining if unplanned rest days are not
The text discusses the importance of consistency in fitness, emphasizing that it plays a crucial role in muscle building, strength gain, fat burning, and overall fitness. However, consistency can also lead to overtraining if unplanned rest days are not