Rest Day

For some of you this day may be the most dreaded & for others it may be a godsend. I know for me, when I first found crossfit, rest days were always a hard day for me. All I wanted to do was be at the box, get a wod in & work on weaknesses so I could be that much better. Rest days always stood in the way of that. I remember the week I started at my first box – I showed up on my fifth day in a row to wod. The average crossfit schedule is 3 days on, 1 day off; 2 days on, 1 day off. So after walking into my box that night, my coach quickly walked over to me & said, “What are you doing here? This is your fifth day in a row. Go home”. I quickly responded with, “I feel fine & I really want to do this wod” (insert whining). She then said I could stay and roll out but she wasn’t allowing me to wod that night. I pouted but in the end I listened to her. After that day I reluctantly took my rest days – I learned quickly that it wasn’t any fun to go into the box & watch other people wod while you just sit there & stretch. It wasn’t until much later when I realized that my coach was doing me a favor.

Once I started competitor training my rest days turned into a godsend for me. By my third day of training my body was hurting & it wasn’t just my legs or maybe my shoulders, it was everything. Any kind of movement was a chore. I even started strategizing about the times that I would get up from my desk at work…. “Do I really need to make copies of that fax right now? Nah, I’ll wait until I run out of envelopes & kill two birds with one stone”. Needless to say, I couldn’t wait for rest days to come.

Some of us that start a new lifestyle it’s more difficult to take that time to rest because all we want is to spend time on that one thing that we love doing - we throw everything we have into it; for new crossfitters we say “They drank the kool-aid”. We all want to be spending our time doing what we love & being with people that share that same interest.

For athletes, taking rest days is extremely important for recovery & growth – not only physically but also mentally. Be mindful of your body, the work that you’re putting in & when you need that time off. Your body will always let you know the good, bad & the ugly, you just have to listen.