Tag Archives: DOMS

REST is BEST!

Exercise Tips, Getting Started, Health Tips, Recipes Leave a comment

Hello again Bloggers!

We know it’s been a while since we’ve posted something for you, but we, just like all of you, were enjoying our mid-semester break!

Hopefully this blog post was worth the wait!

Come one, come all! Find out just how good it is for your body when you do… not much at all. This week’s entry is dedicated to my favourite days of the week – REST DAY!

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We at HealthyU love a good rest day, especially after a busy week of exercise and uni, so we thought we would discuss WHY a rest day is important, HOW to get the most from your rest days and WHAT to eat on a rest day, as well as WHEN the best day to set as a rest day is.

To put it simply – REST IS BEST!

It is crucial to have a rest day amongst a busy work out schedule to promote a quick recovery and decrease the chances of extreme fatigue. Just like the consumption of proteins post-work out is important, a rest day is equally vital in your health and fitness journey for a very important reason – muscle repair!

If you are new to exercise, it is important to alternate your workouts so that you are easing into your program or routine. A good starting point would be a “Day on, day off” approach, where you would exercise one day and rest the following. Alternatively, if you feel that you are in a great work out routine at the moment, but like so many others you neglect the rest day, perhaps a two on one approach would be suitable to ensure that you take the necessary time to rest. My current workout plan is pretty simple. I go hard with some cardio on a Monday, do some weights training on a Tuesday and rest on a Wednesday. Thursday I’m back in for more weights training, Friday I’ll try a group fitness class or some circuit training (check out our WOW for some ideas) and will have Saturday reserved for rest as well!

For a basic run down of why you need a rest day, check out this quick link for a UK fitness site, complete with DIY therapy ideas for muscle fatigue or soreness.

http://www.ffnetwork.co.uk/fitnessfacts/recovery.php

Whatever kind of workout plan you decide to follow, it is first important to keep yours goals in mind. Sometimes the idea of the perfect body or losing a certain amount of weight by a deadline can cause our minds to go into overdrive, which will often lead to over doing it on the exercise front. The truth is, by doing this and skipping your rest days, you may think it will help you achieve results faster but it is actually slowing you down! After some time of over working the body, your muscles will actually start to deteriorate, decreasing your fitness and making it highly likely that you will ruin your progress and add that weight right back on!

Having a rest day every now and then will ensure two things:

1: You will repair your body and your strengths much easier and a lot quicker

2: You will continue to love exercising and fitness – because you lower the risk of hurting yourself!

“Your body builds itself when you are not working out. Most people who think that working out six days a week is an absolute must, think wrong! Your body needs time to recover and giving it just one Sunday to do that is not enough. It needs more than that.”

Find out more HERE: http://healthmeup.com/news-diet-fitness/importance-of-rest-days-in-a-workout-plan/3055

Once again, HealthyU bloggers, don’t be too alarmed if you are feeling sore after your workouts:

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (or DOMS) is the feeling of muscular stiffness, soreness or fatigue that is often experienced for the first day or two after an extreme workout. Particularly painful if you are new to exercise – but here at HealthyU, WE LOVE DOMS!

Some quick and easy ways to get rid of DOMS are:

– Wait it out: Rest and recover for the next day

– Some light stretching or a walk on your rest day

– Try a Yoga class

DOMS is a really good indication of how hard you have pushed yourself throughout your workout, and is an adaptation process to a new or more intense routine. This soreness is a good thing though, as it leads to improved strength and stamina as your muscles recover and build. This is why we love rest days when DOMS kicks in!

To find out more about Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness: Check out this easy to read article on About.com: http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/injuries/a/doms.htm

Okay so now you know why a day of rest is important, but what are you going to eat on your 24 hours of relaxation. Well you may be thinking that you need to follow a strict diet and make sure you are eating correctly as to not lose all your progress.

Don’t worry; eating what you want on this day won’t really make that much of a difference as long as you have well timed meals that are still relatively healthy. However if you eat the right kind of meals you may in fact generate a positive effect for your body allowing you to recover more quickly (The Food Guru, 2012). On a rest day you body is dealing with the broken down muscle fibres and deleted energy stores that have been used throughout the week. So make sure you don’t skimp on any nutritional food and you will feel much better the next day (The Food Guru, 2012).

Now when planning meals for your rest day you need to take into account the amount proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. You want to eat carbohydrates such as whole wheat breads, pasta, brown rice, so as to restore you energy stores (Vaesa. J, 2010). Eating a lot of proteins is also very useful in helping the development of new muscles, along with some unsaturated fats you will be ready for exercise the very next day (Vaesa. J, 2010). So to help you with making a decision on what you will cook for your rest day meals I will provide a couple to help you out.

So one of the meals that I recommend for one of your day off meals is fried rice. This is the perfect meal to replace those calories that you burnt during you workouts containing a total of 605 per serving. The recipe that I will provide was even used by the cyclists participating in the Tour de France in 2010, so here it is (Megroz. G, 2012):

Fried Rice

Ingredients:

  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
  • 2–3 green onions, diced or thinly sliced
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
  • COOKED 2 cups cooked rice
  • COOKED 1 cup boneless chicken thighs (2–3 pieces)
  • 1 cup frozen peas and corn

Directions:

  1. Bring a lightly oiled sauted pan to medium/high heat.
  2. Add the garlic and green onions and saute for about one minute.
  3. In a small bowl, beat the eggs and soy sauce vigorously and pour into the hot pan. The pan should be hot enough to cause the eggs to fluff.
  4. Stir the eggs to cook them quickly.
  5. Add the rice and cooked chicken thighs and fry the mixture for five to six minutes.
  6. Add the peas and corn and cook until the vegetables heat through and are vibrant in color.

Another recovery recipe that I recommend is definitely going to be something that you enjoy; Hot Chocolate!

Hot Chocolate

That’s right, hot chocolate contains approximately the same amount of protein and carbohydrates as Gatorade and has been shown to work on a similar level in professional events, making it the perfect relaxation food while still improving your recovery. A great recipe is this one I found (Megroz. G, 2012):

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups whole milk
  • 11 ounces Bittersweet chocolate ~60-70%, Finely chopped
  • 3 Tablespoons Confectioners’ Sugar

Directions:

  1. Warm milk in medium sauce pan until steaming slightly, take care not to boil over.
  2. Slowly whisk in chopped chocolate.
  3. Whisking constantly reduce at a low simmer for 4-5 minutes
  4. Whisk in Confectioners’ sugar to your desired sweetness.

Both of these recipes are from this website so go have a look at the others which they provide:

http://www.outsideonline.com/fitness/nutrition/The-Top-10-Recovery-Foods.html

Anyway that’s all for this blog post, remember to take care of yourself and always strive to be the HealthyU.

The Food Guru (2012) Rest Day Diet. Retrieved From:

http://foodguru802.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/rest-day-diet.html

Vaesa, J (2010) What to Eat on Recovery Days Between Workouts. Retrieved From: http://www.livestrong.com/article/334862-what-to-eat-on-recovery-days-between-workouts/

Megroz, G (2012) The Top 10 Recovery Foods. Retrieved From: http://www.outsideonline.com/fitness/nutrition/The-Top-10-Recovery-Foods.html

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