The Importance of Rest Day

Anyone who has a love of going to the gym will know that rest day feeling where you are itching to get your hands on a pair dumbbell but physically your body is sore and tired from a whole week in the gym.

Now as much as your mind wants to go workout your body needs that well deserved rest. 

So here are my 3 big reasons to start loving your rest days.

1. When you are lifting heavy weights or doing high repetition you are burning out that muscle, ripping it, tearing it so that when it re grows it grows larger and fuller. But if you consistently keep hitting that muscle without any rest you are giving it no time to re grow larger so it will slow your progress down massively. So if you think of your rest day as a growing day instead it might make your mind realise that is required in order progress. Just think of all those gains growing away while you are resting away and you will start to enjoy it more especially once you start to progress more and more. 

2. Sometimes when you are just starting out you want to go workout as much as possible so that you can reach your end goals as quickly as possible. However, you have to see it like this. The more times you workout each week you have to consistently continue to do that to maintain the physique you have built. So for example if you are in the gym 10 times a week in the hope it  will speed things up you will have to continue to go 10 times to maintain and even MORE to progress. So that's why it's important to know when to stop. Doing a 1 hour session 5-6 days a week is perfectly acceptable but I think anymore than that you will burn yourself out and will end up jeopardising your progress.

3. Injuries. We all know what DOMs feel like and I even enjoy that feeling knowing that I've done something right. But when you don't give your body time to rest you won't be just feeling sore and aching from the workout you will constantly be picking up injuries. Strained or pulled muscles can mean that you can't train so in effect by over training you are again not going to progress because you will have to have time off with your injury. The time off may only be a few days or a week or so but if you continue to over train the injuries will worsen and you could be end up having to have months off.

I hope these points have given you good reason to enjoy a lazy Sunday letting those teared up muscles grow bigger and better. And if you can take one point from this post let it be this if you want your body to work hard for you, you've got to respect it and listen to its needs 💪 now let's all going into the new week rested and ready to smash it 🏋  

 

What is Fitness to you?

What defines fitness to you?

So basically I was inspired to write this post by _laurenfitness on Instagram she basically spoke about doing what makes you happy. This inspired me to write a little bit about this because I feel very strongly that we should do what we feel is right for our own bodies and what we actually enjoy doing.

I completely enjoy everything about lifting weights and getting stronger each time I hit the gym. I love the rush of endorphins I get when I smash a workout and the sense of  achievement from getting that pump. That is what fitness is to me.

However, just because I feel this way doesn't mean everyone will. I believe that we should support each other no matter what our goals are. Whether you want to run a marathon, be a bodybuilder or climb a mountain. It's important to realise that just because the girl pounding the treadmill has a six pack doesn't mean that the girl with no abs isn't as fit they may just be at different stages or have different goals.

I think we have all got a bit hung up on this word ‘goals’. Now I'll be the first to admit that it is important to have goals so that you know you are moving in the right direction but don't become so hung up on them that you lose the enjoyment in what you are doing. The main ‘goal’ should be that you love what you do.

If you find something that you love to do you will not want to stop and you will keep on reaching higher and higher. This is something I truly believe in and that I feel that once you find that love for something within fitness whatever it may be you won't feel the need to skip it or have any guilt attached to it when you do because you are not doing it because you have to its for the love and enjoyment of it.

This is why I am loving the #strengthfeed movement on Instagram at the moment as it promotes self love in everything you do no matter what your strength is. Definitely go check it out for inspiration.

I hope this has inspired at least one person to be considerate of everyone's choices when you see anyone in the gym, on social media or anywhere. It's nice to be nice 💕