Our world is becoming healthier with people opting for healthy living ideas like clean eating and being fit by staying active. The first attempt at to keep ourselves healthy is by being active. However, being active also means to take good rest after any physical activity. Our body requires rest period in between our workout days, there are a few, who tend to overdo it though, i.e. they over train their body. You may see this group of people working out all seven days intensely without a rest period or a rest day.
Why is rest so important? And what happens when you don’t give rest to your body?
Rest means a state when the body is inactive. Inactivity helps the body to relax and gives time to recover strength after any kind of exertion.
Our body requires rest because every time we workout we are tearing our muscles and continuous workout without a rest period may cause further injury to the muscles. Resting your body helps in repairing and healing of the torn muscle fibers and enhances the performance.
But, what do you tell those few who have this inbuilt need to be active everyday? How do you make them take some much needed rest?
Well, I would say, tell them what happens when you do not give rest to your body.
Here’s what you should be sharing with them:
Injuries & drop in performance:
Muscle sustains tiny tears when we workout, rest after training helps in healing those tears. When we do not give rest to the muscle and over train it then it leads to serious injuries.
What happens when you do not sleep for more than 24 hours? You are drowsy, concentration drops and so does your performance. This is exactly what happens with your body when you over train it. The performance drops due to injuries and inadequate rest of the muscles.
Longer recovery time:
Due to over training of a muscle, the amount of time taken for recovery increases. If you are working out 4-5 days a week and taking rest for 2-3 days in between the time taken by the body to recover is shorter whereas when you do not give rest in between your training sessions then the body needs extra time to repair the damages caused by over training. Bigger the damage, longer the recovery time. You can keep your rest period short by taking adequate rest in between your training sessions.
Loss of motivation to train:
As you over train the muscles, the performance drops and it also affects your motivation level. Due to inadequate rest the muscle loses the capacity to grow and instead bear severe injuries. These negative changes in the body affect a person’s motivation level and leads to loss of interest in the training program. With low interest one might feel forced to do the workout instead of looking forward to it.
Immunity:
When your muscles are over trained and injured, the energy reserved for the proper functioning of your Immune system is directed towards the repair of the damaged muscles and bones. As a result your immune system doesn’t function optimally.
Sharing these points would certainly take some time but, it will help those who over train themselves to see great results.
To see great results you got to train smarter and not harder!
