Exercise Smarter: Signs Your Body Needs a Rest Day

When people think of exercise, they think of bulging muscles, beads of sweat, and elevated heart rates. All the effort you put in gives you a serotonin boost. Still, working out isn’t completely successful if your body doesn’t receive the proper rest and nutrition it craves. Find out how to exercise smarter by learning about the signs your body needs a rest day.

You’re Tired

The most obvious sign you need a rest day is that you feel tired. Fitness is a taxing activity on your muscles, ligaments, and joints. When you perform any type of physical activity, you put your body in activation mode, which sends more blood and oxygen to those working muscle groups to perform your movements. Like a machine, your body requires some rest and recovery from that activity. You’ll know when you’re physically tired. Even if you don’t need sleep, your body will tell you when it’s had enough and needs a day or two away from the fitness activities.

Your Body Hurts

Relatedly, another telltale sign of overtraining is when your body constantly hurts. You don’t need to be a doctor or athletic trainer to know that putting your body under physical stress from physical activity can lead to a potential injury if you’re careless. While feeling sore post-workout might indicate a job well done, extended soreness implies that your body is still fatigued from whatever activities you’ve accomplished. If you find yourself progressively sore or achy even with rest days, you may have a lingering injury. Or your training routine may be too excessive.

You’re Getting Sick

Whether or not you realize it, your immune system receives substantial results from fitness. Physical activity helps strengthen your immune system to better fight off minor colds and illnesses. When you put your body through continual stress, though, it weakens your immune system and increases your chance of sickness. If you find yourself coughing, sneezing, or generally feeling under the weather more than usual, those are clear signs your body needs a rest day and that you should exercise smarter.

You’ve Stalled in Your Workouts

Lastly, training is about progress. Even if you’re not a professional athlete, you have personal goals you want to see from physical fitness. Many people don’t know that rest is equally important to training, and when there’s no rest day, workouts lose their quality. Therefore, it makes sense that if you’re overtraining, you simply can’t achieve the results you want. You may plateau in your workouts, and you may find that what was once easy has become harder now. Give your body a much-needed break and rest as needed.

At Top Fitness Store, we have all the equipment for proper rest and recovery. Whether you want yoga mats and flexibility equipment or lateral elliptical machines for light activity to reduce joints pressure, we have everything you need. Browse our selection or call us for help on your fitness gear today.