What a rest day is for
The workout is the request. The day after is when your body fills it. Skip the day after and you keep placing orders nobody has time to build.
You get stronger on the day off
A hard session knocks you down a little. Rest brings you back a little higher than before. Train again before you've come back up and the line goes the wrong way.
What a rest day looks like
Rest means no hard training. It doesn't mean no moving.
Why not just lie down?
Because some of you only gets fed when it moves.
The cartilage in your knees and hips has no blood supply. It gets its food from the fluid in the joint, and that fluid only gets pushed in and out when the joint is loaded and moved. A day on the couch is a day your joints skip lunch. A walk fixes it.
Ian: "Rest your muscles. Walk your joints."
Ian: "Rest your muscles. Walk your joints."
Signs you need one more
One of these is a normal Tuesday. Three at once is your body asking for a day.
How many, and when
For most people lifting two to four days a week.
A day betweenGive a muscle about two days before you train it hard again. Monday, Wednesday, Friday does this without any math.
One full day off a weekNothing scheduled. Walk, live, eat normally. This is the day the week's work gets banked.
A lighter week now and thenEvery six to eight weeks, cut the sets in half for a week. You'll come back stronger than you left.
Things people ask
Short answers.
Will I lose progress?Not in a day, and not in a week. Strength holds for a couple of weeks with no training at all.
Ian: "Muscle took months to build. It doesn't leave over a long weekend."
Ian: "Muscle took months to build. It doesn't leave over a long weekend."
Should I eat less on rest days?No. That's the day the building happens. Same meals, same protein.
Ian: "You don't dock the crew's pay on build day."
Ian: "You don't dock the crew's pay on build day."
I'm sick. Train or rest?Stuffy nose and nothing else: an easy session is fine. Fever, chest, stomach, or aching all over: rest until it's gone.
Ian: "Also, the rest of us would like you to stay home."
Ian: "Also, the rest of us would like you to stay home."
This week
Pick one.
Put the day off in the calendarSame as a workout. It's part of the program, not a gap in it.
Walk on itTwenty easy minutes on every rest day. Outside if you can.
Count your lightsBefore each session, run the six signs. Three or more: go lighter, or take the day and tell me.
