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A common question I get from new (and even experienced) clients who are getting serious with training is, "When should I take my rest days and how many do I need?". Well, if you've found yourself asking these quesitons, then keep on reading because today I'm going to break down the different "types" of rest schedules you can utilize to maximize your training. For each "type" of schedule, I'm going to give a few pros and cons to help you better find and understand what works for you.
Alright, so the Weekend Relaxer is probably going to be our most common rest schedule. This is the person who trains Monday-Friday, whether it's everyday or 2-3 times during the week, and then takes Satruday & Sunday to reboot and rest up for the next week. This is a super common scheudle for people new to training becasue of the simple format it follows. You have the same schedule every week and so you know exactly when your rest day is coming so you can then scehdule out some good ole' weekend fun with friends. Simple enough, yeah?
-Easy to follow schedule
-Weekends off to enjoy with friends/family/events
-Can be great for beginner lifters due to the simple format
-Fair amount of rest to help ensure full recovery week to week
-Common schedule, so easier to match up with training partners or friends
Like all the schedules we're going to talk about; the Weekend Relaxer can have a couple drawbacks...
-Can be hard for some people to kick back into training after a weekend of doing nothing
-Can increase the chance of a complete "weekend binge" filled with booze, wings, and fries.
-Can decrease overall training load later in the week if your earlier workouts were super intense.
-Less flexibility with weekday training schedules (if you get sick or just don't feel liek training, will you make it up on the weekend?)
-Beginner/new people to training
-People who like to have weekends wide open
The 3:1 schedule is typically seen in more exerpeicned lifters who are following a strength program rather than just training lightly from day to day. This schedule would look something like training Monday, Tuesday, Wedneday, and then taking Thursday to rest followed by jumping back into training Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Simply put, you'll train 3 days in a row and then take 1 day to rest before going back into the 3 day schedule.
-Can be great if following a strength/hypertrophy program
-Can increase workload due to the rest days coming "earlier" and/or more frequent than the Weekend Relaxers schedule
-Not super common, so planning wekeend events with friends may be a little trickier
-May require a more "flexible" training schedule due to the rest days always being different
-Experienced lifters
-People with more flexible scheudling
This scheudle in my opinion offers the most flexiblity and can fit just about anyones training style. The Take It As It Comes scheudle is just that; you take a rest day when you need or if you just don't feel like training. Let's say you trained Monday and Tuesday, but come Wednesday you wake up with a nasty ass cold that has you feeling like a not-so living zombie. Well, unlike the Weekend Relaxers scheudle which might get thrown out of whack, you can just take the day to yourself and then come Thursday go right back to your normal programming. This means you would just do Wednesdays workout on Thursady and so on and so forth.
-Easy to follow
-Super flexible to your life and trianing style
-Can give a good amount of rest between sessions
-Like the 3:1 Schedule, this person may need a bit more flexibility in their training
-Does require you to know and listen to your body a bit more than other set schdedules
-People with more flexible scheudling
-Anyone no matter their lifting experience
There you have it; just a couple different scheduling styles you can use when it comes to building your traiing scehdules. At the end of the day we all recover, train, & have differeny lives, so it really just comes down to what works for you. If you know that you need to follow a set schedule so that you don't fall of the wagon, then the "Weekend Relaxer" schedule may be best for you. Or if you feel like you know your body pretty well and you just like taking your training day by day; then give the "Take it as it comes" schedule a try. Either way, learn to listen to your body, do whart works best for you, and utilize these rest days. Our bodies need to be properly rested between training sessions to ensure that we can give the next one our all.
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