Wellness Wednesday | Give Me A Break | Clayton, NC Lifestyle Photographer

The pure thought of NOT going to CrossFit and getting my workout in is almost torture.  So, to tell myself that I need to give my body a “rest day” is not an easy task.  Of course thinking that if I “miss” a day that I am going to be missing out on making “gains”.  But, in fact it can be the exact opposite.

It occured to me the other night after another hellacious workout that my body was tired, my muscles were sore, and no matter how much I pushed them I wasn’t working out to my standard of performance.  I was beginning to feel frustrated with myself and disappointed in my workout performances.  Sure, I was completing the workouts and I was doing “something”, but I had totally forgotten that recovery is as equally important as training.

Too much training, lack of proper recovery and conditioning can lead to plateaus.  It can also lead you to injury.  And I certainly do not want the set back of an injury.  But, I also didn’t want the set back of a piss-poor attitude.  That is where I was heading.

Allowing myself to recover from my workouts I’ll experience adaptation to the imposed demands.  As my body compensates from the stresses of training, it will adapt by growing stronger, gaining power, and increasing its work capacity.  If I don’t allow myself any recovery time though, my body won’t adapt and I’ll just become frustrated. (Which I had).

So, today I decided to give myself a “day off” from the gym.  But, that does NOT mean that I won’t do something to be physically active.  I still need to get in my one mile run!  I’ll also include some stretching and maybe I’ll even find some yoga on YouTube later just to change things up!

Remember as hard is it may be, give yourself some recovery time, especially if you’ve been training hard for weeks on end!  It is just as important to have recovery days as it is to have training days.  I’m hoping that reminding myself to do this that I can see and feel improvements in my own workouts.

Take Care of Yourself!

~Kim