The Science of Rest Days - 5 Reasons Why Recovery Is Essential for Progress

00:00Real quick, if you want to learn more about macronutrients and understand that methodology on how they can help you achieve your body composition goals of changing the way your body looks, I put together a free 15-minute training where I dive into macronutrients and how you can control your body for the rest of your life with them. That link is in the description below. Click on it after listening to the show today. 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, strong, being strong, and feeling insanely confident in your body is going to be so hard to achieve.

00:39Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkie Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. And 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, Nikkie 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?

01:10Which we do in every single one of these podcasts, but most importantly, we're going to talk about some methodology, science, and tactics today, which I added science in there, that will help you guys. If you, like, the one thing that I hope that you gain from this podcast today is, like, 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? And so, with that being said, today, I want to talk about the science of rest days.

01:40Look, and 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, like, you're just starting your fitness journey, and you're trying to dive into, like, momentum and motivation, and you're diving into an X day such and such, and there's no days off in there,

02:16you are setting yourself up for failure by kicking your journey off, especially if you want longevity and sustainability, in that type of mindset with a no days off mentality. And, like, I understand, and, like, what I'm going to just, 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 this willpower, it may inspire all of these things,

02:47but this no days off misses a crucial piece of the fitness puzzle. And that is the undeniable importance of rest days. So what I hope that you get from this podcast is me just debunking this myth and helping you guys understand the importance of why it's so important to take a rest day. And I know that there's you guys in your brain that I've received so many DMs about this, right? Nikki, how do I take rest days? I feel like I'm a failure if I take a rest day.

03:20I 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, gets me out of my headspace. So I need to work out every single day. Okay, I'm going to try my best to debunk two 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, strong, being strong,

03:53and feeling insanely confident in your body is going to be so hard to achieve. Let's dive into the first reason of why recovery is so essential. And guys, make sure you stay for all five, because each of these will speak to different areas of maybe you as an individual. And you may be struggling with like 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 just 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.

04:24So first of all, I want to just lock your brain in into the biological importance of rest. So 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. So 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.

04:55You do not build muscle inside of your workouts, inside of the gym. You build them afterwards. When you are exercising, especially during weight training, resistance training, you know, 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 like I get any further, these micro tears aren't harmful.

05:26In fact, they're the complete opposite. But the thing is, 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 by doing it 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%.

05:58Again, you don't build muscle in the gym. You're causing these fibers, these tiny little, tiny little tears to form in your muscle fibers. Those little tiny tears are signaling your body, hey, we need to start going into repair and rebuild mode. And then you guys do that. You build the muscle with adequate nutrition and adequate rest. And this whole process is called muscle protein synthesis. But without enough rest, without obviously enough nutrition and eating the right things to fuel this process,

06:32your muscles do not have the optimal environment to undergo this repair and growth process. To undergo, in layman 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.

07:12So 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. 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 the ridiculous fitness over, like, not even overachieving.

07:44It's just stupid achievement. You're just, you're doing something that is psychologically not getting you to where you want to be. Number two, I just 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 is that if you are training without adequate recovery, you are leading yourself into overtraining syndrome. And so, if you're leading yourself into overtraining syndrome, you're going to experience at some point along your no days off persistent fatigue.

08:15You are going to have a decrease in your performance. AKA why I highlight it strong at the beginning of the podcast is because you are not going to feel strong. You're going to feel like a flabby, rundown, tired individual. Okay? And you're not going to be able to, your muscles aren't going to be able to give you the pump that you want to have when you're working out. And then you are also introducing the ability for you to have an increased injury risk. If you are in an overtraining and you're doing these no days off, these are all the things that you will experience, right?

08:50Risk of injury, decreased performance, increased fatigue. But most importantly, sleep disturbances, which are a huge part to 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. And so I encourage you to understand what I'm hearing or understand what I'm saying and hear what I'm hearing. Hey, guys. Love so much that you guys are listening to this podcast. If you ever want to have the video version of this, which usually has more effects and all that good stuff for those of you who are visual learners,

09:22check it out. YouTube channel, Warrior Babe, if that's what you like. Either way, keep enjoying the show. Because 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 here when it comes to a no days off mentality, which is consistency versus constant action. Consistency in training doesn't mean consistent activity.

09:55Okay, right? When people say you 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 that are diving into their fitness journey or trying to get back into the groove now that kids are back in school, you're diving into this momentum and motivation where you're trying to just do something every single day.

10:27That is not sustainable for the long run. So consistency means establishing a routine that is going to work for you in a sustainable fashion for the long run. And this includes you to take 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 that, oh, now that the kids are back in school, I have to go work out every single day and develop this unsustainable habit that now you're locked into that if you start to take a day off,

11:07you feel like you're just you're starting 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. So our bodies often give us these signals when we are tired or when we are strained.

11:39I can speak to this firsthandly today. Okay, which I'm filming this podcast a couple days in advance right now. But I woke up this morning and typically, you know, guys, I'm getting back on my AM routine. But the last two days, because I've been traveling, I woke up so sore because I hadn't worked out in a little bit. And so my body was just like, nah, Nikki, like you are tired. You are you're strained from these two, these two workouts that you did. Like I went ham because I missed working out. And so ignoring these cues and me ignoring this could have pushed me into being injured.

12:15And so if you're ignoring these things, right, it's our signal, it's our body giving us these signals that we're tired or strained. And if you're ignoring this because you're trying to get on this no days off and you're trying to keep this momentum, you're trying to keep this, you know, forward activity happening every single day, it will lead you to be injured. Okay, instead, you guys, I want you to adopt a proactive approach by scheduling rest days, right? Like for me, I train four days a week and I have one or two days I'm usually out doing a walk or a hike,

12:47or like one or two days where I'm like straight up like Netflix and chill type of day. No joke, right? Because I know that my body needs that rest and recovery. And 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. And you have, you know, you have to take the rest day, you have to listen to them. Or also what I just spoke to with what I said when I woke up this morning was like, all right, I'm going to do a stretch from roll all the things. Being flexible enough to take an unscheduled rest day if your body demands it.

13:18My body demand, Nikki, you would be stupid if you went and worked out this morning because you're tired, you're strained, and you're not, you know, 90% able to work out right now. And there's a difference between understanding two in your mind when you're strained or 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 in the approach with scheduling your rest days, you guys, is so important.

13:51And then being flexible enough to taking 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, for me, I woke up this morning, my body demanded that I just do some stretching and foam rolling. It's a sign of wisdom, okay? It's a sign of like, yeah, Nikki, you know that you've been in this field for eight years and you know when your body is this tired and this strained. And so you're using wisdom to know that you're taking an unscheduled rest day.

14:26It is not a sign of weakness. What I'm talking about what I just said with like the little bitch brain is like 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 gave the promises to myself and today I woke up strained because for the last six days before that, I was traveling and wasn't working out. Now I can rest, recover, stretch, run all the things today and wake up tomorrow and go and

14:59crush a workout. Okay? So it's not a sign of weakness. It's a sign of wisdom. And then the last and most important one that I want to talk about you guys today is the impact of one rest day. Taking a date off will not derail your progress. In fact, you guys, with everything that I just said throughout this entire podcast, it will probably enhance your progress because of all the things that I just said. But also, a rest day allows your glycogen stores to refill, right?

15:33When 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. And 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.

16:05It's only going to enhance it based off of 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 your progress. Guys, listen to me. It's only going to enhance it based off of everything that I just said.

16:37It could be the very thing that your body needs to jumpstart further progress. Drill that into your brain. By you missing a workout, taking an unscheduled rest day, or activating your rest day and actually taking the scheduled rest day. I'm just saying 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. The biological importance of rest.

17:08The no rest days off. Maybe me just 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 is not going to derail your progress. It is only going to jumpstart your body for further results, okay?

17:44So all in all, everything that I just said is me speaking to some science of the body and your result 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 fitness workout program and fitness journey. I want you guys to embrace these rest days with as much enthusiasm as you guys do when you

18:15do your workouts. And your body will thank you and will give you better results with fewer injuries, with you feeling less tired, with you feeling less decreased 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.

18:45Because I think that's the most important thing for you guys to understand. That a rest day is actually progress because what happens on these rest days is the repair and the rebuilding environment is optimal for you, 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 I hope that most importantly, you just approach a rest day understanding how important it is rather than beating yourself up because you're taking your rest day.

19:17All right, you guys. Peace out. I'll see you in the next podcast. Hey guys, real quick. If you're interested in taking your body to the next level, lose body fat, build more muscle, feel more confident. Do it alongside one of our 30 plus professional coaches. Work one-on-one with her to eliminate all of the guesswork that you may have. And all you need to do is just do the work that she tells you to do to get to those goals of yours. Now to learn more, click the link below this podcast and apply to our VIP program right now.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.