Importance of Rest Days and increasing workload?

dougal

I am in the early stages of a get fit, weightloss regime.
I am doing all cardio at the moment as I really need to get my fitness levels up.
I am into week 3 and at the moment am training 6 days a week with 1 rest day.
Currently doing 30 mins on stationary bike - up from 20 mins week 1 and 25 week 2. Also doing 2 - 40 mins brisk walks at weekends and trying to work in a game of squash once a week.

How important is it to schedule rest days into your routine and should they be the same day every week?
Also how should I judge the need to increase the workload. Is it just a matter of keeping going if feeling ok or should I get more scientific about it?

InTheTrees

I'm no expert...

But I think until you're up to at least an hour (or two?) of strenuous exercise you dont have to worry about rest days.

Good job on escalating the pace slowly too, keep on pushing.

Transform

You should lift some weights, do body weight movements and chuck a kettlebell around. That's about as scientific as you need to get.

They way you are training now will help you feel 'fitter' but will in no significant way change your look or overall shape.

Hope you are stretching and foam rolling also

Mellor

dougal wrote: »

Currently doing 30 mins on stationary bike - up from 20 mins week 1 and 25 week 2. Also doing 2 - 40 mins brisk walks at weekends and trying to work in a game of squash once a week.

A 40 minute walk is lol enough intensity that you won't need to worry about rest

SBWife

There's no need for a rest day at that level of exercise, in fact the 30 mins on the bike or 40 min walk would be considered typical for an active rest day for many fit people. According to that metric you're taking rest days every day.

dougal

Transform wrote: »

You should lift some weights, do body weight movements and chuck a kettlebell around. That's about as scientific as you need to get.

They way you are training now will help you feel 'fitter' but will in no significant way change your look or overall shape.

Hope you are stretching and foam rolling also

Thanks for that - some food for thought.
Was doing some light stretches but have found some on below that look very good.
http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/art_5388.shtml
I'll try incorporate some of these.
On the weights end of things I know I need to include these also but I am so unfit that I need to work on this first.

Mellor wrote: »

A 40 minute walk is lol enough intensity that you won't need to worry about rest

As I said I am quite unfit so the walk is definitely not feeling very low intensity at the moment!!
Doing just over 4k walk with the first 2k downhill and then back up the hill which has an elevation change of 90 metres according to my GPS.

dougal

SBWife wrote: »

According to that metric you're taking rest days every day.

doesn't feel like it to me!!

I was just wondering about rest days because I didn't feel like taking one this week but wasn't sure if I should anyway for the recovery benefits!

SBWife

No, recovery benefits really only apply when you're lifting a fair bit of weight.
You're only doing what humans are designed to do on a daily basis there should be no need to take a rest day at this point.

I'd consider getting started on a weights program right away, the bit of cardio you are doing is great but you'll increase overall fitness much faster with a bit of weight work. Perhaps you can have someone show you some body weight exercises for starters?

SteelyDanJalapeno

You dont need to be fit to lift weights, thats a silly excuse, you dont even need to join a gym or buy expensive if you cant afford it,

Some bodyweight exercises are fine to get you going, Push ups, sit ups, Dips( I do my dips in between 2 chairs while i'm messing about in the kitchen cooking), squats and possibly start attempting pull ups, these should be a great place to begin

Oryx

If you are feeling the strain of your exercise (and be realistic here) you need to rest. If its not affecting you beyond normal fatigue, then dont. I agree that unless you are doing a hell of a lot more exercise, you dont need to worry about a rest day. At the level you are at, something every day will be of benefit to you. Youll see people take rest days when they are training hard (long runs, cycles, sport specific training etc, or doing hard weight programmes) and the body is under a lot of stress and liable to injure or fatigue badly. You are not there YET.