Do Women Over 40 Need Rest Days to Build Muscle?

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If you're not taking a rest day and you're on this train of no rest days, getting to the result of losing body fat, building muscle, being strong, and feeling insanely confident in your body is going to be so hard to achieve.

Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkiey Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. On this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I am your host, Nikkiey Stott, and welcome, welcome, my friends, to today's episode, episode number 88, where we're going to do exactly what I just said in my intro, okay? Which we do in every single one of these podcasts, but most importantly, we're going to talk about some methodology, science, and tactics today, and I added science in there, that will help you guys.

The one thing that I hope you gain from this podcast today is that if you are doing what I'm about to debunk, you are literally hindering your progress of being able to lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident in your body, okay? So with that being said, today I want to talk about the science of rest days.

Look, before you tune me out, before you're like, oh my god, I can never take a rest day because my mind goes all over the place and I need to figure out what to do with myself on those days, hear me out. You're going to hear five reasons why recovery is essential for your progress. And the only way you are going to tap into a recovery mode is if you are taking a rest day. You are seriously hindering your results if you are a no-days-off type of person. Or if you're just starting your fitness journey and you're trying to dive into momentum and motivation, and you're diving into an X-day such-and-such and there's no days off in there, you are setting yourself up for failure by kicking your journey off in that type of mindset with a no-days-off mentality, especially if you want longevity and sustainability.

I'm going to debunk this popular myth in the fitness space, no days off. And I understand that it may inspire dedication, it may inspire grit, it may inspire willpower, it may inspire all of these things, but no days off misses a crucial piece of the fitness puzzle. And that is the undeniable importance of rest days. So what I hope you get from this podcast is me debunking this myth and helping you understand why it's so important to take a rest day.

And I know that there's you guys out there, because I've received so many DMs about this, right? Nikkiey, how do I take rest days? I feel like I'm a failure if I take a rest day. I don't know what to do with myself. I'm an active person. My mind's always going. I feel like the gym helps me get out of my headspace, so I need to work out every single day. Okay, I'm going to try my best to debunk both of these things. I'm going to help you in the essence of the mindset, but I'm going to debunk why no rest days is missing the most important piece of you getting to the results you want. Because again, like I said, if you're not taking a rest day and you're on this train of no rest days, getting to the result of losing body fat, building muscle, being strong, and feeling insanely confident in your body is going to be so hard to achieve.

Let's dive into the first reason why recovery is so essential. And guys, make sure you stay for all five, because each of these will speak to different areas of you as an individual. You may be struggling with the third or the fifth one, or you may be struggling with the first or the second, or maybe you're struggling with all five. But hear me out for all five of them and listen to me loud and clear, because I want you guys to feel more comfortable with taking rest days.

So first of all, I want to lock your brain in to the biological importance of rest. This is my number one reason, right? Diving into the science-y stuff while trying to keep it at a level that you guys will understand, because if you can understand me, you will go and apply this. You may have heard me say this in previous podcasts. You may have heard me say this on social media. Maybe this is the first time you're hearing me say this, but this will never be the last time you hear me say this. You will hear me say this forever.

You do not build muscle inside of your workouts, inside of the gym. You build it afterwards. When you are exercising, especially during weight training, resistance training, using weights, barbells, dumbbells, all of the things where your body is under resistance, your muscles are under resistance, these tiny little tears form in your muscle fibers. And before I get any further, these micro tears aren't harmful. In fact, they're the complete opposite.

The thing I want you guys to understand is that when these tears are happening in your muscle fibers, there's a signal to your body to repair and rebuild. And the way you repair and the way you rebuild is with adequate nutrition, but most importantly, adequate rest. And the muscles rebuild stronger than ever before if you have those two paired together simultaneously and you're doing it at like 95%.

Again, you don't build muscle in the gym. You're causing these tiny little tears to form in your muscle fibers. Those tiny tears are signaling your body, hey, we need to start going into repair and rebuild mode. And then you build the muscle with adequate nutrition and adequate rest. This whole process is called muscle protein synthesis. But without enough rest, and obviously without enough nutrition and eating the right things to fuel this process, your muscles do not have the optimal environment to undergo this repair and growth process. To undergo, in layman's terms, getting you the results that you want.

If you don't give your muscles the key environment inside of your body, with the right food, the right rest, the right hydration, all of the things, limited stress, your body will not undergo building more muscle. And if you guys want to get toned, okay, toned is just more of the muscle that you have on your body showing as you decrease body fat. So you won't get toned if you don't have muscle. And you won't get muscle if you don't put your body in an optimal environment for it to undergo the repair and building process.

So right there, that would really debunk everything in terms of no days off. Because if you're doing no days off, you are not doing the science of what's going to get you the results that you want. You're just doing ridiculous fitness. It's not even overachieving. It's just stupid achievement. You're doing something that is not getting you to where you want to be.

Number two, I want to dive into this misconception a little bit more. This no-days-off mentality hinders your progress. Obviously from all the things that I just said, but most importantly, if you are training without adequate recovery, you are leading yourself into overtraining syndrome. And if you're leading yourself into overtraining syndrome, you're going to experience, at some point along your no days off, persistent fatigue. You are going to have a decrease in your performance. AKA, that's why I highlighted strong at the beginning of the podcast, because you are not going to feel strong. You're going to feel like a flabby, rundown, tired individual. Okay? Your muscles aren't going to be able to give you the pump that you want to have when you're working out. And you are also introducing an increased injury risk.

If you are overtraining and you're doing these no days off, these are all the things that you will experience, right? Risk of injury, decreased performance, increased fatigue. But most importantly, sleep disturbances, which are a huge part of you getting the results that you want, and mood changes. You're going to be so irritable. You're going to be pissed off. Maybe you're experiencing these things right now because you're in the no-days-off zone. So I encourage you to understand what I'm saying.

Hey, guys. Love so much that you guys are listening to this podcast. If you ever want the video version of this, which usually has more effects and all that good stuff for those of you who are visual learners, check out the WarriorBabe YouTube channel, if that's what you like. Either way, keep enjoying the show.

Because with all of the things I'm saying, it's completely counterproductive to skip rest days. If you want X result, if you want to build muscle, be strong, lose body fat and feel insanely confident, it is counterproductive to skip rest days.

Okay, number three is more in the mindset arena when it comes to a no-days-off mentality, which is consistency versus constant action. Consistency in training doesn't mean constant activity. Okay? When people say you've got to be consistent with your training, it doesn't mean that every single day you have to be working out. It doesn't mean that you have to be in this realm of constant activity. It means establishing a routine that is sustainable and beneficial for you for the long run.

Right at the beginning, I said that a lot of people diving into their fitness journey, or trying to get back into the groove now that the kids are back in school, are diving into this momentum and motivation where they're trying to do something every single day. That is not sustainable for the long run. Consistency means establishing a routine that is going to work for you in a sustainable fashion for the long run. And this includes taking both active days and rest days.

Okay, so being consistent is about integrating fitness into your lifestyle in a balanced way. It doesn't mean, oh, now that the kids are back in school, I have to go work out every single day, and you develop this unsustainable habit that you're now locked into, so that if you take a day off, you start to beat yourself up, which I'm going to talk about in the last one. So stay with me here. Taking rest days doesn't mean you're not consistent. It means that you're being smart about your training. It means that you're being smart about building a sustainable plan for yourself that you will be able to follow through on.

Okay, number four. This one is listening to your body. Our bodies often give us signals when we are tired or when we are strained. I can speak to this firsthand today. I'm filming this podcast a couple of days in advance right now. But I woke up this morning, and you know, guys, I'm getting back on my AM routine. The last two days, because I'd been traveling and hadn't worked out in a little bit, I woke up so sore. And my body was just like, nah, Nikkiey, you are tired. You're strained from these two workouts that you did. I went ham because I missed working out. And ignoring these cues could have pushed me into being injured.

So if you're ignoring these things, right, it's our body giving us these signals that we're tired or strained. And if you're ignoring them because you're trying to do no days off and you're trying to keep this momentum, you're trying to keep this forward activity happening every single day, it will lead you to be injured.

Instead, you guys, I want you to adopt a proactive approach by scheduling rest days, right? For me, I train four days a week, and I have one or two days where I'm usually out doing a walk or a hike, or one or two days where I'm straight up having a Netflix-and-chill type of day. No joke, right? Because I know that my body needs that rest and recovery. So I want you to be proactive, right? And this is what's really beneficial when you work with a trainer or coach, because they're scheduling these in for you. You have to take the rest day. You have to listen to them.

Or, like what I said about when I woke up this morning, I was like, all right, I'm going to stretch, foam roll, all the things. Be flexible enough to take an unscheduled rest day if your body demands it. My body demanded it. Nikkiey, you would be stupid if you went and worked out this morning, because you're tired, you're strained, and you're not 90% able to work out right now.

And there's a difference between understanding in your mind when you're strained, versus when you're just being a little B-I-T-C-H and you don't have the actual discipline to go get the workout done, if it's a part of your scheduled day, okay? But being proactive with scheduling your rest days, you guys, is so important. And then being flexible enough to take an unscheduled rest day when you know that your body needs it and when your body demands it.

Listen to me. It is not a sign of weakness if, like me this morning, your body demands that you just do some stretching and foam rolling. It's a sign of wisdom, okay? It's a sign of, yeah, Nikkiey, you've been in this field for eight years and you know when your body is this tired and this strained. So you're using wisdom to know that you're taking an unscheduled rest day. It is not a sign of weakness.

What I'm talking about with the little bitch brain is, if you worked out once in the week and we're coming up on a Sunday and you allowed all of your other excuses to get in the way of your training that week. Okay? I just kicked my butt the last two days inside the gym. I showed up for myself and kept the promises to myself, and today I woke up strained, because for the six days before that I was traveling and wasn't working out. Now I can rest, recover, stretch, foam roll, all the things today, and wake up tomorrow and go crush a workout. Okay? So it's not a sign of weakness. It's a sign of wisdom.

And the last and most important one that I want to talk about today, you guys, is the impact of one rest day. Taking a day off will not derail your progress. In fact, with everything that I've said throughout this entire podcast, it will probably enhance your progress. But also, a rest day allows your glycogen stores to refill, right? When you're done working out, your glycogen stores are diminished. And this is why it's really important to have a post-workout shake, because it helps to start the rebuilding process and the recovery process.

So on a rest day, your glycogen stores are able to refill, your muscles are able to repair, and most importantly, your central nervous system is able to recover. And so it helps to prevent physical burnout and mental burnout. That's why rest days are so important. And one rest day, or two rest days in a week, or even three, is not going to impact your progress. It's only going to enhance it, based on those things that I just said.

Think of it this way. One poor meal won't ruin your results. One poor meal won't ruin your quote-unquote diet, right? And also, one rest day, or even a few in a week, won't halt your progress. That's the mentality that a lot of people struggle with. They think taking a rest day is going to halt all their progress. Guys, listen to me. It's only going to enhance it, based on everything that I just said. It could be the very thing that your body needs to jumpstart further progress. Drill that into your brain. Whether you're missing a workout, taking an unscheduled rest day, or actually taking your scheduled rest day, I'm just going to say it over and over again: it's not going to halt your progress. It's going to be the jumpstart for further progress, okay?

So I just want to drill all of those things into your brain. Those five things. One, the biological importance of rest. Two, no days off, me diving into more of the misconception around this: it's counterproductive to skip rest days. Number three, consistency versus constant activity. Number four, listening to your body, you guys. Being proactive with scheduling rest days, and then being flexible enough to take an unscheduled rest day when your body demands it. It's not a sign of weakness. It's a sign of wisdom. And the last one, most importantly, the impact of one rest day: it is not going to derail your progress. It is only going to jumpstart your body for further results, okay?

So all in all, everything that I just said is me speaking to some science of the body and your results and building muscle when you take a rest day. And the science is clear, you guys. Rest and recovery are not just beneficial. They are essential components of any effective workout program and fitness journey. I want you guys to embrace these rest days with as much enthusiasm as you do your workouts. And your body will thank you and give you better results, with fewer injuries, with you feeling less tired, with less of a decrease in your performance.

You will have the results that you want if you take rest days. You have to take rest days. Point blank, end of story, end of podcast. Make sure you're doing these. You're scheduling them into your routine. You're listening to your body. You're understanding that a rest day is actually progress. Because I think that's the most important thing for you guys to understand: a rest day is actually progress, because on rest days the repair and rebuilding environment is optimal for that process to happen and for you to get the results that you want.

That wraps up this entire podcast. I hope this helped you guys. I hope that some light bulbs went off. And most importantly, I hope that you approach a rest day understanding how important it is, rather than beating yourself up because you're taking your rest day. All right, you guys. Peace out. I'll see you in the next podcast.

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