Do you need rest days and cheat days?

Hey guys, Wheel Pounder is here! I’m here to talk about exercise, as well as covering rest days, cheat days, and everything in between. Watch the video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFyMaLTeMXw

Pssst… If you’re sneakily reading this and can’t watch the video in action (boo), you can check out everything you need to know below too.

The importance of knowing when to rest

This is something I get asked about a lot. I mean, guys are always asking me about my workout routine, the types of workouts I do, as well as my rest days. Your typical workout schedule is usually five days of exercise, two days off. However, a rest day does not necessarily mean lying on the couch all day. What I mean by “rest days” is a day that is less active than the other five days. While it’s important to keep your heart pumping, perhaps through a walk outdoors or a little cardio at the gym, you can work out vigorously on the other five days and save those two for a little exercise.

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But should you rest? Well, I think it’s important to listen to your body. When I got back into working out after Covid (twice!) and had some health issues. When I got back into exercising, I was pretty consistent for five days in a row, but even though I was thinking about really exercising, I had to listen to my body. I was feeling really sore in my muscles after not exercising for a while, so I knew I had to take some time off. If you don’t listen to your body, you may risk injury or burnout.

When to incorporate rest days

For this, we will break from the traditional rule of working out for five days and taking two days off. For example… You want Monday to be a weight lifting day, training major muscle groups, for example, working your legs or back. But before we get into the muscles you focus on, let’s talk about rest days more. As I mentioned earlier, this doesn’t mean spending two days watching Netflix – after all, we have goals to achieve!

Read also: How to get into shape after Covid

So instead of watching TV, you should use your rest days to maximize the benefits – that means giving your body some time to rest and repair, while still burning calories and staying healthy.

a summary:

Choose your two rest days. I like to have them back to back for better recovery. During these rest days, there is no heavy load, but we still need to keep active. This could be by walking or doing a small amount of cardio. If you want to keep pushing yourself, you can increase your cardio on your rest days, but it’s important to do the right type of cardio. For example, a recent study showed the benefits of doing 7 sets of 20-second intervals with a 2-minute rest in between, allowing you to experience burning calories without losing muscle mass.

What about cheat days?

Aha! Cheat days. No doubt you look forward to these things as much as I do. But don’t overthink it…cheat days are recommended a maximum of once a week. Let’s say you exercise in a calorie deficit 5 days a week, with the weekends as rest days. Often times, one of your rest days will also be used as a cheat day. Let’s say you use weekends as rest days. If you also use Sunday as your cheat day, you may want to go out and eat a big burger and fries, knowing that Monday’s workout will be tough. This cheat day allows you to significantly load your glycogen stores, maximizing your calories for an intense workout the next day.

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This means that after binging on a cheat meal, you’ll want to hit one of your major muscle groups the next day, for a really intense workout. I’ll choose your legs or your back.

What to avoid on cheat days

• Milk/foods containing dairy products
• Foods containing pork
• Large amounts of sugar

Regardless of your blood type or anything like that, these two foods are known to increase inflammation. If you eat plenty of these foods, your body will be pushed to repair and recover from workouts and This type of inflammation. And you don’t want that!

a summary

Now, you’ll need two days off per week to allow your body to heal and repair itself, and promote protein synthesis. But remember to get your heart pumping a little on your rest days! Cheat Meals – Link them to your rest day, the day before your weightlifting day is key here! Just don’t overdo it on your cheat meal…try to avoid excess sugar, pork, and dairy.

Ready to maximize your workouts?

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