This post contains affiliate links.
Did you know that taking a rest day is an important part of your fitness routine? Both for your fitness routine, and for your overall health and well-being. But what should you do on a rest day? It’s different than active recovery – I’ll show you!
How many times have you wished that you could lay down in the middle of the day? Here’s your excuse!
Most people know they should take a day or two off from working out each week. Whether they do or don’t is a different story. What most people don’t know is that a real beneficial rest day isn’t just a day off. There is so much more to it! If you’ve read my article Why Rest is More Important Than Your Workout you know that how you spend your rest day is probably pretty important.
The rest day is that magical day each week when you get to skip your workout without feeling guilty. But it is also time spent purposefully relaxing, resting and recovering. You take the time to separate from everything else and turn inward and just breathe. You heard me right. Not only do you get to skip your workout guilt-free, but you also get to lay down and relax!
The Good News
The best part is when you commit to an intentional rest day, the benefits will carry over into the rest of your life.
- You will have a higher tolerance for stress – you won’t get stressed out as easily, and when you do get stressed, you’ll recover your calm so much faster.
- When you get sick it may not last as long.
- Your body will function better than before.
- Your overall health and well-being will improve
- You’ll see results more quickly from your workouts!
If that’s not a magical day then I don’t know what is!
The Bad News
I’m not going to lie, when you first start it can feel really hard. You might feel guilty that you aren’t doing something else that needs to be done. You might feel like you should be moving and get restless. But the more you practice, the easier it will become to take that time and enjoy it. The more you practice, the faster you will be able to relax.
If you’re already exercising most days, pick one or two days per week to do a focused relaxation practice. If you aren’t setting aside time to work out, this might actually be a better option for you. Start setting aside time to practice relaxing and the benefits you get will help you feel prepared to take on adding more physical activity into your life!
Want tips to de-stress and get more active?
My Rest Day Routine
1. Warm Up
I like to work a gentle warm up into my rest day. While complete rest is incredibly healing for your body, you can still benefit from some gentle movements. Getting the blood flowing and the muscles moving can help speed the recovery process and activate your lymph system which is responsible for removing some toxins and supporting your immune system. Choose movements that target chronically tight areas of your body to bring some warmth into those muscles. This also helps your brain start to focus on YOU. You want to start bringing awareness to your body and away from whatever else is going on that is stressing you out.
2. Get Comfy
Once you’re limbered up it’s time to get comfy. You can simply lay down on the floor or your bed, but the idea here is to use pillows, blankets, bolsters and other props to purposely place your body into a position that will allow you to breathe fully and deeply and relax completely.
The easiest restorative pose involves putting a towel roll, pillow, or bolster under your knees, a folded blanket to support your upper back and a rolled towel to support your neck. This supports your knees so you don’t put pressure on your low back and hips, opens your chest so you can breathe more easily, and supports your neck to allow the release of tension.
Yoga has set the standard for restorative poses. Check out this article for several ideas for poses that are incredibly relaxing.
3. Breathe
Once you’ve warmed up a little, picked a pose and settled in, you’re ready to relax and do the hard part. Lay still and breathe. No, not just for a few breaths. For as long as you can – ideally for at least 20 minutes. It’s ok. You can work up to that. 5 minutes is better than none!
The thing is, your brain needs time to settle and realize that it’s safe and it’s ok to switch over to the parasympathetic nervous system (the rest and digest response that allows your body to heal).
Like I said earlier, it takes practice to be able to do this. Be patient with yourself and make time to practice.
As long as you are trying to relax, you are not wasting your time.
If You Struggle to Relax:
- Move through two or three restorative poses as shown here to allow your body to move and get the restlessness out while still focusing on your rest time.
- Try shorter 5-10 minute sessions – daily is ideal, or at least 3 times per week.
- Add a short session at the end of your workout to maximize your recovery and results.
- Do this right before bed IN your bed to help wind down at the end of the day.
Here’s how you practice:
1. Set Up and Wind Down
- Start with a space that is tidy and relaxing. You can keep the lights dim, put on some calming music, light a candle, whatever sounds good for you.
- Do your warm up exercises, and start focusing on breathing as you move.
- Pick your restorative pose and get set up.
- Get comfortable.
- Once you’re laying down, take one deep, big breath – fill your lungs as full as they’ll go – and imagine gathering up all the tension and stress into one big ball.
- Push that ball of stress out of your body in one big forceful exhale. Imagine you are blowing all the stress far away from you.
- You can repeat these breaths if you feel like you need to – when your body decides it wants to let out a long slow exhale, you’re ready to begin your breath work.
2. How to Breathe
- First you’re going to spend a few minutes letting your body breathe. You become aware of air moving in and out of your lungs and body, but you make no effort to control the length or depth of your breath.
- Count your breaths – you’re going to count to 20 breaths in and out. It’s ok if you lose count. You can start over or pick up at whatever number sounds right.
- Next you’ll start to deepen your relaxation by slowly deepening and lengthening your breath. Instead of taking control of your breath, you draw your awareness deeper. As you watch your breath enter your body, slowly follow it, feeling it move into your lungs and feeling your belly expand to make room for your lungs.
- You can put your hands on your belly if it helps to feel your breath move.
- As you exhale, feel your belly and ribs release down, gently squeezing the air out of your body.
- Continue watching your breath getting deeper and longer.
- You don’t have to keep count – just enjoy your relaxation time! But if you’re new to this practice, start with 20 breaths. Sometimes it helps to know there is a limit or a set end time so you can give yourself permission to fully relax.
3. Finish Gently
- When you’re ready to be done, gently begin to take conscious breaths.
- Wiggle your fingers and toes and bend your elbows and knees, getting some slow and gentle movement back into your body.
- When you’re ready to sit up, gently roll to one side and press yourself slowly up to a seated position.
- Find a comfortable sitting position.
- Take a few more intentional breaths here and notice how your body and mind are feeling. Try to notice where you’re feeling more relaxed – don’t get caught up in where you’d still like to improve.
- As you get ready to stand up and go back to your day, make the decision to bring some of the calm you found here with you. Don’t try to gear up and get motivated because that’s just going to reactivate your stress response. Practice keeping your calm state active and allow yourself to gently get back to your day.
Bonus: Taking Your Practice Deeper
If you’re enjoying your rest time, you can continue counting breaths or you can start trying some imagery to take you into an even deeper and more relaxed state.
- Imagine you breathe through your skin and your breath flows through every inch of you equally.
- Feel your body supported by your props and the earth. Start at the midline of your body and imagine your body can soften and melt to either side, releasing into that support.
- Imagine inhaling all the good, healing, relaxing energy your body needs, letting it flow through every cell in your body. When you exhale, you gently release and let go of anything that no longer serves you. You don’t want to forcefully exhale here because now you are consciously choosing to relax.
It’s more powerful to be able to let go and peacefully disconnect from what is bringing you stress.
I bet you’ve probably figured out that I just walked you through a meditation practice. You can call it whatever you like – I personally am more focused on the physical benefits so I tend to call it a restorative practice. It’s just semantics though. You could try a guided meditation app, like Headspace or Calm, especially if you are looking for more targeted stress relief.
Keep in mind that full recovery and healing will only happen if you’re giving your body this rest time PLUS healthy food and plenty of water to fuel rebuilding and healing.