Hey Team,
Relaxation day is this Tuesday, August 15th and while that may not fall on your specific day of rest for the week, we’re going to break down some of the best ways to enjoy it when you do find the time to press pause.
First, let’s talk about the difference between an active and passive rest day. An active rest day involves some form of light, mellow movement. This could consist of an extra long walk, some banded movements, a yoga flow or playing a game of pickup.
Now, for those of us who have a harder time resting, (points finger at myself), the key to an active rest day is to indeed, keep it light. In metrics, avoid spiking your heart rate above Zone 2 for an extended period of time, try not to stress your muscular system with heavy lifting, and focus more so on loosening up tight muscles to show them some love.
A passive rest day means do ALMOST nothing. If you’ve had a heavy week physically or mentally, it’s important to allow your body and mind to recover from the events that have occurred. You’ll never hear me tell someone NOT to move. Movement is medicine.
On a full stop rest day I’m usually going for a light morning walk in the park with a potential yin yoga practice (holding floor poses/stretches for 3-5 minutes at a time, this is great for fascia health). If I’m training for a more demanding event ahead, I usually take my rest on a day that’s guaranteed to be low stress. For me, this is a Friday as I wind down the work week and prepare for my heaviest training sessions on the weekend.
As a coach I often get asked how often someone should be resting. Like most things, my answer is “it depends.” I know, eye roll. 🙄
But seriously, incorporate at least one rest day into your programming as a safe bet. If you’re training for a marathon or Ironman with tremendous increases in volume, you may need two rest days per week, one active and one passive (FULL stop).
Gone are the days of tearing up our muscles seven days a week and proudly wearing the badge of honor for being sore 24/7. Overtraining is out, longevity is in. Give your muscular, skeletal and central nervous systems the adequate time they need to repair from high stress events. High stress events can mean a tough run, heavy lift, a fight with your partner, a taxing day at work, etc.
Your body can’t dictate the difference between what kind of stress you’re experiencing, it just detects STRESS. 💥 Here are five ways to spend your next rest day: 💥
- Nature Therapy 🌲🍃Spend the day outdoors!Studies have shown that exposure to green spaces can encourage exercise and social interaction, improve mindfulness, and decrease stress and anxiety. Time in nature has the ability to increase vitality and overall well-being. Find more ways to be around nature, even if it’s simply adding a few plant babies to your space.
- Call someone you’ve been missing. ☎️ In 1938 Harvard started a decades-long study to find the root of human happiness. The result? 80+ years of proof that relationships have a more significant impact than money, fame or any other accolade we oftentimes chase. The director of the study and a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital, Robert Waldinger, stated that loneliness can impact humans just as negatively as smoking and alcoholism. We’ll chat more on this topic in an upcoming letter. For now, give an old friend a call on your next rest day and lmk how much better your brain feels after. ❤️ P.S. showing your pets some extra love counts here too. Shoutout to Maddie and Brady. 🐶 😻
- Practice your favorite recovery protocols. 🧘♂️🛀 If you don’t have one yet, that’s okay! A few favorites include sauna or steam, ice bath, stretching/yoga, meditation/breathwork, compression therapy and much more. Dr. Dan Giordano of Bespoke Therapy in NYC visited the Bodybuilding.com Podcast to talk about recovery modalities. Tap in to listen and learn. On a day without a workout planned, I still try to get a few rounds of contrast training in. This consists of rotating back and forth between hot and cold therapy. My routine includes three total rotations between a 3-minute cold plunge and 3-minute hot plunge, rounded out with one 20-minute sauna session afterwards. The heat opens capillaries, and the cold closes them, aiding in blood flow throughout the body and ultimately benefiting muscle and tissue recovery. If you don’t feel like leaving the house, a hot epsom salt bath never goes out of style. We’ll keep breaking down the benefits of some of these practices in future chats.
- Do the things weighing on your to do list. ⚠️ Proceed with caution ⚠️ I don’t mean finally redeem that skydiving coupon. Schedule that doctor’s appointment that your reminder app has been pinging you on, get a haircut, order the school supplies, replace the broken bulb. Having a written list of tasks available will make it that much easier to tackle it when your rest day comes. Changing a broken light bulb on a non-shoulder day can’t be recommended enough. And if you were planning on planting those shrubs after a leg day, think again.
- 🚨Do absolutely nothing.🚨 I mean it! It could be time for a totally guilt-free day of doing nothing, and YES THAT’S OKAY. On TikTok they’re calling it “bed rotting” but I’m unsure how I feel about that naming convention so we’re gonna move on. This point took me a long time to figure out but when I did, it was game changing. Sometimes your body, mind and soul need a hard reset to factory setting in order to keep pushing forward. When you need one, take one.
At the end of the day, you ultimately get to decide how you spend your time outside of the gym. If you’re feeling under recovered and overworked, it might just be time to switch things up. Stay ready for the long game my friends.
Until next week. 👋
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Danielle Bitts
VP of Brand, Bodybuilding.com 
