Do you work out everyday? Should you rest every now and again? Is it only weights you should take breaks from? I worked out for 7 days this week, I'm wondering if I should take a break... because I want to... but if it's good for me I think I'll suck it up and do it again today! TIA!!

The training plans for marathons/half-marathons include a couple of rest days a week. At least all that I have seen do.

Absolutely take one day a week off. I usually tend to plan two, but at the moment I'm on a 6-day a week schedule, and I miss my two days off.

I usually work out six or seven days a week. On days when I don't workout, I've usually done something--I take public transit, so going shopping at the foodie market downtown involves 20 minutes of walking, just to get to the bus and from the subway to the market. Then there's the time spent wandering around the market. While these aren't blood-pumping, heart-racing activities, it's not sitting at home on the couch, so I count it as light activity for my rest day.

I work out 7 days a week as well some days i put in more minutes than others.

I think you have to look at your deffinition of working out. is it trainning for a marathon/triatholon or it a few hours a day walking or are you somewhere inbetween.

I personally am a walker and the rest falls inbetween, I sweat when I walk but I plan to walk everyday or do something active like or skating oe skiing in the winter, golf and swimming in the summer , life happens and I miss a day here and there but I don't plan for a day off and I don' beat myself up for a missed day either....

Does that help?

I try to do something active every day... Weight training can be done every day as long as different muscle groups are worked, ie: back/biceps one day, chest/triceps the next, legs one day, shoulders and abs another day. I also do cardio on those days. I will swim one day/week do Yoga on the same days of weight training, swimming or running, Yoga can be done daily... Sometimes I will even, run in the morning, go to the gym weight train, then swim in the afternoon... I love those days...

Do what feels best for YOU...

I think the suggestion of looking at what you're doing is best. Also this is a pretty personal thing, just like most diet and exercise related areas.

You can probably do cardio every day. You can probably take classes every day w/out a problem either. At some point your body will probably want a rest, but I know people who do 30 or 40 days in a row of cardio type workouts and then take a weekend off and then get right back into it.

OTOH, I know people whose weight loss stalls if they work out too much and don't give themselves a rest day. So they need to schedule in rest days once every 5-7 days or so.

Now, if you're weight training of any kind, you MUST give your muscles repair time -because it's the repairs that build muscle, not the act of working them. So you need to give 24-48 hours between working each muscle group.

But mostly it's about what works for you, within those guidelines.

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I workout 5-6 days a week cardio
5 days weights, splitting the weight days among body parts.

def need a day or 2 of rest.

we are 'supposed' to get some mod form of cardio 6 days most say.

Exactly.

I like to get some form of exercise or cardio every day. This doesn't always happen, of course, but I feel great when I do.

This means that if I'm not able to make it to the gym then I'm jogging. If I'm not jogging then I take the dog for a loooong walk and use my hand weights. I think it's also important for me to mix it up. If I'm at the gym 7 days a week I tend to get burned out, but I function really well with exercising every day.

Hi chicks!

I take two days off a week. I know when I get to my last day I feel pretty run down, I know I'm training pretty hard. You should take some time to let your body recover and re-build.

Normally I lift weights on a 3 day split (with the hoidays that's not been quite how its going), and then I do 90 mins of cardio 5 days.

I definitely think its relative, in the beginning I did less now I'm stronger I do intense exercise 6 days a week. I do take a rest day most weeks but its become harder to take as the break in momentum doesn't suit me but my body needs it. You'll figure out what works for you the farther along you go.

This is a very good point. When I first started biking to work, I was at a different job and it was a very long commute. On my third day in a row biking to work, I was exhausted--I was having trouble even keeping my eyes open at 10 in the morning! I realized that three days in a row of that long commute might be a bit too much in the beginning. Eventually I could do more, but I definitely had to build up to it.

There are a lot of factors determining how often you need to rest--what fitness level are you starting at? How intense are your workouts? Are you doing higher intensity every day, or alternating? Also, keep in mind that the amount you need to rest will change as you get more fit and as your workout become more challenging.

The short answer is, "Listen to your body." However, I am reminded of the *snarl* thread currently very active in another section of the forum--this is easier said than done. Since many of us have been overeating and inactive before starting to exercise, we learned to not listen to our bodies, so listening to our bodies' cues for when we need to rest can be difficult. If in doubt, do some light activity, and that will allow you to work out at your best the next day.

I don't formally plan not to workout everyday. I plan to workout everyday - and real life manages to insert the breaks for me .

I try to work out everyday since I don't have a very active lifestyle.