The importance of rest /recovery / restorative days
Monday was leg day and during my second move I felt my lower back tighten up and I thought oh no here we go. I finished the moves of my workout with lower weights and then stretched. The next day was back/bicep day and when I was done with that workout my back was really tight. I went home took some Advil, stretched and thought ok it will be fine. Mind you I was still doing my 45 minutes of walks outdoors but they were getting slower.
Well, as you can imagine yesterday I went to start the second leg day of the week and heard a pop in my lower back, so I finished the workout with just restorative yoga and then called to get a massage. When I walked out of the massage room the woman at the desk asked me if I fell asleep during my massage because I looked like I did. I said no that was from crying while he got into those muscles. It was painful but needed. Today I am just really sore but can move. Tomorrow will be better. Mind you I still walked yesterday and did 45 min of restorative yoga this morning. I only have 9 days left of this phase of 75 Hard and I would hate to quit at this point then start over. However, I am going to listen to my body and do slow restorative/recovery moves as my workouts for the next couple of days.
Rest days are really important. Our bodies need them. We aren’t meant to push it every day hard. It is something that doesn’t come easy for me. I am the type of person that will keep pushing through when I have a goal in mind or a challenge I am doing. It has taken years to train myself to slow down and listen. The goal of 75 Hard is to do hard things, it’s more of a mental game and right now hard will be yoga/stretching for a few days instead of peloton rides and lifting.
There are so many benefits to rest days like:
Giving your muscles a chance to grow
Reducing the risk of injuries (I should have listened lol)
They keep you motivated
They keep you from OVER training
Better sleep
Support your immune system
Improves performance
Replenishes your bodies Glycogen stores
So that being said rest days are great and should be done. Overtraining is never a good thing. Even though I am doing 75 Hard and it consists of (2) 45 minute workouts a day. One has always been a walk outdoors and you can do what ever you want for the second workout like another walk or yoga. That is what I did once a week during the original 75 days so time to remind myself of that during the last of this 30 day one. Only 9 days left and I will not hurt myself.