Transcript: Why I Don't Believe in Total Rest Days Anymore

What's up you guys? Famous Ashley Grant here

and welcome to More Movement Please. Today is

day 115 of my fitness journey of going maximum

effort on fitness and I'm actually on a walk

right now and so I wanted to just kind of hop

on here and... and talk with you guys about the

importance of active recovery days. Because anybody

who's following my fitness journey, you know

that I am working out basically seven days a

week at this point. But two of those days I chose

as active recovery days. Now there are some times

that I will do... some kind of additional exercise.

Like I've started doing Zumba on Sundays. And

so technically speaking, I only have one active

recovery day. But more often than not, I do Wednesdays

and Sundays as my active recovery days. And so

why is this important, right? Why is it important

to have an active recovery day? And these are

the lighter days where... you're not really going

as hard as you normally would. So why are they

important? Well, blood flow and waste removal

is the big one. When you do light movement like

walking or gentle yoga, you increase circulation

without stressing your muscles. And it also delivers

fresh nutrients and oxygen. to recovering tissues.

And it's way more effective than just sitting

on the couch, because if you're going to be recovering,

it doesn't mean you can't move. You still can

move. So when you still are moving, you're preventing

stiffness, but you're not adding strain. So after

intense workouts, muscles, they can get tight

and your joints can feel stiff. But gentle movement

and stretching, that's what keeps everything

mobile, and it reduces that locked up feeling.

But unlike another hard workout, it doesn't require

a lot. additional damage that needs repair. So

the other reason that active recovery days are

so important to me is the mental recovery, right?

That's huge. When you're training as many days

a week as I am, it can be mentally draining.

And this is especially true if it's intense.

Like some of the exercises I do, some of the

classes I attend, they are pretty intense. And

these active recovery days that I'm doing, they're

letting me stay in my routine and keep building

momentum, but they're not adding pressure. They're

not adding intensity. But it's a psychological

break while still doing something positive for

my body. And the other thing is it keeps my nervous

system from getting fried. So high intensity

training, it taxes your central nervous system,

right? Active recovery days, they give it a break

while you're maintaining movement patterns and

staying active. So when you're working out as

much as I am. You got to make sure you add in

recovery days. But again, they don't have to

mean that you're not moving. So whether you're

doing stretching or walking or light yoga or

something, you're still doing low impact and

you're still promoting mobility, but you're also

aiding recovery without adding that significant

stress. So if you are working out a bunch of