Labor Day Is Not Just About Work

Happy Labor Day!  Hope you are enjoying some much needed time off and family time!  And, I hope you are resting!  Rest is such an important part of a healthy lifestyle and maintaining our strength. 

Most athletes know that getting enough rest after exercise is essential to high-level performance!
The body repairs and strengthens itself in the time between workouts, and continuous training can actually weaken the strongest athletes.

Rest days are critical to sports performance for a variety of reasons. Some are physiological and some are psychological. Rest is physically necessary so that the muscles can repair, rebuild and strengthen.

Take a second to read this article about the importance of rest!  http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/sampleworkouts/a/RestandRecovery.htm

And take a second to rest.  Your body, your mind, your soul.  Whatever works for you!

But don't rest too long!!! 

Rest and recovery are critical components of any successful training program. They are also the least planned and underutilized ways to enhance performance. You may not be aware there is a difference between rest and recovery or how to properly implement them both. If you train for ten hours per week, you have 158 non-training hours or 95% of your time left for rest and recovery. Where is all of this “extra” time going and why do you walk into your workout dragging?

Most easily defined as a combination of sleep and time spent not training, rest is the easiest to understand and implement. How you sleep and spend this time is very critical.   (http://breakingmuscle.com/mobility-recovery/7-essential-elements-of-rest-and-recovery)

Here are seven essential elments of resting:

1.  Sleep
2.  Hydration
3.  Nutrition
4.  Posture
5.  Stretching
6.  Foam Rolling or Self Myofascial Release
7.  Heat, Ice, Compress

 

Remember to rest.  Especially when you are at your busiest!  Enjoy a break and repair!