Transcript: Why I Don't Believe in Total Rest Days Anymore
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Ashley introduces herself on day 115 of her fitness journey, explaining she works out seven days a week with two of those being active recovery days — Wednesdays and Sundays — though Zumba on Sundays sometimes reduces that to one.
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.
Ashley explains that light movement like walking or gentle yoga increases circulation, delivers nutrients to recovering tissues, and prevents stiffness without adding muscle strain — making it more effective than sitting on the couch.
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
Ashley describes how training intensely many days a week can be mentally draining, and how active recovery days give her a psychological break while keeping momentum — and also give her central nervous system a rest from high-intensity training.
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 days, I encourage you to consider adding in active recovery as well. Just see how it feels. And that's the tip I've got for you today. I hope you enjoyed this quick little episode about, well, active recovery. And I hope it encourages you to start adding active recovery days to your workout routine. So with that in mind, onwards and upwards, my friends, have you worked out today?
Ashley wraps up by encouraging listeners who work out frequently to try adding active recovery days — whether stretching, walking, or light yoga — and closes with her signature sign-off.
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