I know rest is important, and I'm not talking about training hard 7 days a week. And I'll quite happily take a rest day if I'm not feeling great (I ALWAYS have a rest day on the first full day of my period) or if my schedule for the day doesn't allow a workout, so I'm not speaking from a place of anxiety over skipping workouts.
HOWEVER, I find that in general I do best with keeping to a DAILY routine, so I don't like to take weekly rest days. Instead, I take gentle recovery days, like a level 1 stretching routine or one of Kelli's walking workouts without added resistance (or a brisk walk outside, when the Canadian weather suits it). In ten weeks so far in 2023 I've taken 7 full rest days, and probably double that in gentle active recovery.
When I follow programmes, I either shift the first day of the next week back to skip the rest day, or if the active recovery was more on the active side, I add a day of gentler recovery to my calendar.
Is this okay? I know rest is important, but surely a gentle cardio or stretching workout doesn't really "count"? Or should I be trying to take a day 100% off each week?
Do I have to take FULL rest days?
I know rest is important, and I'm not talking about training hard 7 days a week. And I'll quite happily take a rest day if I'm not feeling great (I ALWAYS have a rest day on the first full day of my period) or if my schedule for the day doesn't allow a workout, so I'm not speaking from a place of anxiety over skipping workouts.
HOWEVER, I find that in general I do best with keeping to a DAILY routine, so I don't like to take weekly rest days. Instead, I take gentle recovery days, like a level 1 stretching routine or one of Kelli's walking workouts without added resistance (or a brisk walk outside, when the Canadian weather suits it). In ten weeks so far in 2023 I've taken 7 full rest days, and probably double that in gentle active recovery.
When I follow programmes, I either shift the first day of the next week back to skip the rest day, or if the active recovery was more on the active side, I add a day of gentler recovery to my calendar.
Is this okay? I know rest is important, but surely a gentle cardio or stretching workout doesn't really "count"? Or should I be trying to take a day 100% off each week?
Thanks!