Improve Your Training With Essential Rest Days

Muscles need time to rest after exercise, and they can take up 48 hours to recover, repair and grow enough for training to be effective. By taking time out from a training schedule, the body has time to replenish fluids and energy stores, and the risk of muscle damage decreases. Instead of being forced to stop completely because of injury, allowing for rest days can help to minimize stress on the body. As well providing a chance to catch up on rest or reset poor sleep patterns, these days can include alternative gentle forms of exercise that will help increase flexibility, relax overused muscles and give them a chance to recover between soccer training sessions.  

A Day Of Leisure

Rest days are an essential element of a moderate or vigorous training schedule, and ideally should be taken every three to five days. Of course, taking a day off exercise doesn’t have to mean sitting on the couch all day eating junk food. Although it’s great to have some time to chill out at home in cozy loungewear, there is no reason not to get out and about and flaunt your relaxed look, even on a day off training. These rest days give you an excuse to unwind, dress up your joggers, and go out to enjoy some gentle exercise just for fun. You can layer up for a casual look on a long walk or add a touch of glamor for a dance class. Either way, you’ll feel comfortable and relaxed, and be refreshed for training the next day.

Catching Up On Sleep

A rest day also provides a good opportunity to catch up on some quality sleep and help your muscles to heal. As you sleep, your body produces muscle building hormones, including the human growth hormone, which also helps to absorb essential amino acids from the protein you eat. A study by Stanford University revealed that when athletes slept for any extra two hours at night, the next day their speed and reaction time rose by 5%. So as well as relaxing muscles, reducing pain and enabling tissue repair, getting between seven and nine hours of sleep every night can also improve your performance on the pitch. 

A Change Is As Good As A Rest

If you like to keep active even when you’re not in training, alternative forms of exercise can be a useful way to stretch underused muscles while resting knee joints and protecting vulnerable tendons. Swimming in itself is a great way to build endurance and cardiovascular fitness without putting stress on joints, but it can also be a effective way to recover from other vigorous exercise. A study of triathletes showed that those who used their recovery time after running to swim instead of lying still showed a 14% increase in the time they could later run before tiring. 

By incorporating rest days into your schedule, your body has a chance to heal tissue, rebuild muscle, and replenish energy stores. Alternative exercises and activities still allow you to rest overused muscles while enjoying some down time from a vigorous training schedule.