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Jason S.

Rest Days?

asked about 1 year ago | Report

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I'm training for a duathlon at the end of March. I work out seven days a week right now, and it has been over two weeks since I have had a day off. Two days out of the week I do circuit weight training for about 30-40 minutes that does not involve any real serious running or biking other than warm-up.

I was wondering if anybody thought I should be taking a full day off once a week? Or how do you approach rest days?

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• Adam B.

  taking a rest day is just as important as a workout .I take every sunday off I look at is i deserve it plus i do my long runs the day before so i feel like i deserve

  answered about 1 year ago |Report

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• Megan D.

  Rest days are incredibly important. This is when your body recovers from all the hard training so that training can actually take effect. Strong training 7 days a week for 1-2 weeks in a row would be "summation" or "overreaching", a very intense period that is usually followed by a setback or recovery week. It should probably only be done a couple times out of the entire year since it's so hard on your body. Give yourself a rest, otherwise you're going to hurt yourself. You should have short, medium, and long/hard days periodized throughout the week. The long/hard days should definitely be buffered by a short & easy day or an off day completely.

  answered about 1 year ago |Report

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• CoachEric

  Jason -

  Megan is dead on with her answer. You MUST include rest days! Without them...your body doesn't have an opportunity to adapt to the training. In effect...your short-changing yourself without them. I include at least one...and sometimes two rest days a week in my training cycles.

  Good luck!

  answered about 1 year ago |Report

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• Kristen F.

  I enforce a MANDITORY day of rest atleast once a week. Sometimes, oddly enough, it pains me to do it because I feel antzy and can't ever seem to sit still but each and every time my body thanks me. Rest is a VERY important part of training and without it, you set yourself up for injury,

  answered about 1 year ago |Report

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• Lori D.

  Yup...even pro athletes have rest days. You can do it! ;)

  answered 11 months ago |Report

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• Eric N.

  Rest days, a definite yes. I use to be like you, seven days a week, either runing or crosstraining or should I say overtraining. Now I only run three days, crosstrain two and have two rest days. You need the down time to recover and avoid injury. Good luck.

  answered 10 months ago |Report

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