Hi, and welcome to The Running Channel. I'm Anna,
and I'm Rick. And we're taking a look at every runner's secret weapon,
rest days.
The days that could actually be more important than your session or workout days.
Yep. We'll be showing you why you need to be taking rest days,
what the benefits of them are and what you could or should be doing with your
rest days too.
And don't go anywhere because we'll also be giving you our top tip for recovery.
But first, if you are new around here, help us out won't you? Hit subscribe,
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So first of all, why do we need rest days? Well, when we run,
we put an impact load on our body,
which stresses our physiological systems, causes microscopic tears in
our muscles,
along with adding stresses to our cardiovascular system and also
impacting our immune system and changes to our metabolism.
We therefore need rest days to let our body recover and adapt.
Giving our body a chance to recover, allows it to rebuild and strengthen too.
And depending on the type of training,
there's a training response at cellular level as well. For aerobic endurance,
this might mean changes in muscle mitochondria,
which are at the heart of energy production. And for resistance training, muscle
cells add protein to allow more forceful contractions,
and it's these types of adaptions that ultimately can lead to enhanced performance.
The recovery and adaptation process is needed in order for your performance to improve.
Stress fractures can also be a result of over training when your body has gone through
too much stress and load, and hasn't had a chance to recover properly from it.
And if you want to find out more about over training,
then do make sure you check out our video on The Running Channel all about that too.
Some areas need longer to repair than others. For example, the tendons,
which connect muscle to bone, take longer to repair than the tissue itself.
This is because the blood flow to the tendons is not as good as it is to the
tissue, which has a higher vascularity.
There are exercises that you can do to help strengthen and condition connective
tissues like tendons, to help you be a little more resilient and less
susceptible to injuries like tendonitis for example. We would recommend though,
that you do seek medical help with those strengthening exercises and the best
way to recover if you are experiencing a particular injury though.
So what are the benefits of having a rest day? Well,
your mind has a chance to recover.
Have you ever got into a rut with your training and not quite known how to get
back into it? Well, taking a rest day gives your body the chance to relax,
switch off and get out of the monotonous cycle of training.
But, we know that that can sometimes be difficult.
Running may have started off as your hobby,
but recent studies have shown that exercise addiction is becoming more and more
common. In fact, it affects around one in 10.
So you might have feelings of guilt or anxiousness if you are missing a day of training.
But, you should know that the rest days are just as important a part of your
training as the training itself, because of the adaptation and improvements to
your performance that they can help with.
You'll then return with a clean slate and fresh mind,
which could lead to improved motivation and performance.
Have you ever been on a run where it's your mind telling you,
you can't do it rather than your legs?
Another benefit of rest days is that it gives you time to do other things.
So hopefully running isn't 100% of your life.
We talked about feelings of guilt if you miss a day of running, for example,
and running can take over your life and become part of your identity.
Being seen going for a run might be really important to you.
But if you take a rest day, you can focus on doing other things,
find another hobby, or see friends and family.
If you and your running buddies do find rest days a little bit challenging,
then it's a good idea to actually meet up with them and maybe go for some lunch.
This can actually allow you to spend time with your support network,
which can be neglected a little bit in the preparation and build up for a race.
So now we know, why we need to take rest days,
let's have a think about the kinds of things to be doing on rest days.
So there's some debate about how much rest you actually need on a rest day.
Some people say that you should take time off your feet altogether,
completely rest and let your muscles relax.
But there are others who swear by cross training on their rest days.
Whatever you do, just be sensible about what it is.
A 10 mile hike up the mountain, for example, isn't going to leave your legs,
the freshest, if you've got a hard session that you're then going to do the next day.
Option number one is complete rest.
This is probably your go-to after a really long race or run,
try to completely switch off from running.
One of the best ways that we can actually do this is socialising and recent
studies have proved that socialising,
whether virtually or actually going out and meeting up with friends, can really
help our recovery from endurance runs.
It's not going to make that much difference with a 5k, but with longer stuff,
it can really help.
When we exercise our body produces cortisol,
which is also known as the stress hormone.
So a recent study looked at the social environment effects
on a video presentation post-match for professional rugby players
and looked at both their hormonal response to it,
and also their match performance response to it too.
It found that hormone levels returned to a normal rate quicker in the post-match analysis
when there were other players present, creating a positive social environment.
Therefore being social, can speed up our recovery.
When we run, even if it's just for fun,
our body doesn't know the difference between that and being chased and running
away. And therefore our natural body response is to produce cortisol.
And so, part of your recovery needs to be balancing your stress hormone levels back
and balancing out that endocrine system. Too high stress levels
can cause injury and can lead to symptoms of over-training.
Option number two, if you feel up to it is to do some cross training.
Like we said before, just be careful in what you do,
but a gentle bit of cycling or some yoga can really help with our mental
wellbeing without having the need to go out and pound the pavements.
If you're looking for some more suggestions, check out our video,
all about different types of cross training.
The final thing to consider on your rest day is sleep, which is vital
when it comes to improving your running. Sleep is the most valuable,
least expensive and most useful resource when it comes to improving
your rest and recovery.
Sleep is crucial for proper immune function, tissue repair,
and therefore recovering after runs not to mention the benefits that it has on
general wellbeing and good mental health.
So get yourself into a really good pattern with your sleep.
Cut down on the caffeine late in the day,
make sure that your bedroom is dark and cool and a nice environment to
sleep in.
And don't sit for ages scrolling on your phone just before it's time to go to
bed either. Scientists have found that exposure to the blue lights emitted by
electronic devices can suppress melatonin,
which is the hormone that our body produces to control our sleep cycle.
Hopefully that's given you some ideas about what you can do on your recovery
days. And now for our top tip. If you all going to run on consecutive days,
make sure you vary the intensity of the training you do.
Easy runs are a great way of getting in some active recovery,
but don't overdo it, but you could end up with an injury.
Just make sure that if you are doing a long run or a high intensity session,
you either schedule in a rest day or dramatically decrease the
intensity of the session that you do the following day.
What are your go-to things on a rest day?
Do you currently take recovery days or are you guilty of skipping them?
Let us know in the comments below and we'll see you next time here on The Running Channel.