How do you handle a rest day?

[CynthiaMarsha]

I sometimes struggle with rest days. I need to take one day off a week from all activity and really just rest. No working out. No pressure to accumulate steps. I am thinking to make it a thing I log once a week, to ensure I do it as a regular routine. How about you?

[Corney]

CynthiaMarsha: When I was running for over 25 years, I ran everyday. I
was addicted to the endorphins and enkephalins and was somewhat depressed
when heavy rain or when the temperature dropped below zero. As I got older
I came to realize that the adage if some is good more is better is
foolish. Then I came to take a rest day in stride because there was
nothing I could do about it. Now I exercise 5 days a week, taking the
weekends off, without feeling bad. I guess wisdom really does come with
age.

[Alicat2104]

Rest days for me are just rebounding for about 20 mins and 40 mins yoga, but my dog needs walking every day regardless and we walk miles. I can't do the "sitting doing nothing" that some people seem to enjoy.

[essieL]

I think you are wise, everyone who works hard Benefits from a day of rest. It's about balance and healing and restoration. Exercise is good, wonderful, but not healthy when it takes over our lives. On your day of rest, give yourself to family or a neighbor or just something or someone in need. Take time away from thinking of your needs and focus on the needs around you, you won't even miss it. 

[dreamtobefit]

For me, my rest days I aim for 10,000 steps but rather then doing them as quick as possible in a short amount of time I use all day and do a few short slow strolls. I do Kettle Bell 3 times a week for my main exercise. I personally feel I should do exercise every day but on rest days I just slow it down a little. Sometimes doing nothing makes my healing process worse as my muscles get stiff. Stretching also works for me and feels amazing after a couple of days of high intensity work.

[SunsetRunner]

@Alicat2104 I think "doing nothing" should be read more as "not exercising as normal", not staying in bed all day long eating crisps and watching soap operas 🙂 My "doing nothing" means going out for a walk or cycling at the riverside with my wife or even spending some time cooking ( cooking became my hobby, since my diet I took a real grasp on it 🙂 ). It still makes you use your body. It's not literally doing "nothing". It's doing "something" which is not a hardcore exercising. The rest days are not only about the body but also about the mind. As a software engineer, I made this picture in my head that it all works like temporary folders which are getting filled with temporary files produced by the running software. The longer you run the system without the reboot, the more temporary stuff is being produced which takes space. So once in a while, you want to reboot as with the restart the temporaries are being deleted and all taken space is freed. Same I see the rest day - kind of human reboot 🙂

[Alicat2104]

@SunsetRunner I wasn't referring specifically to you, just people in general.  I'm surrounded by people who seem to make the effort to do as little as possible physically (whether at work or at home) and I just can't do that 🙂