Rest/off week?

[zacattack]

Anybody else take off or rest weeks/extended days between workouts?

I feel like sometimes my body just needs longer to recover depending on how much or hard I’ve been working out. Just wondering if anybody else does this and what your strategy is. I tend to take breaks depending on how I am feeling, although at one point in my life I did 7 weeks on and one week off.

 

[*zap*]

I do periodization, rest period 1-3 weeks, transition period 50% volume up to high volume over 4-6 weeks, base period of high volume for 6-12 weeks, a few weeks of specific period when I add in specific workouts that focus on certain goals @ the end of the base period, then taper off to 50% volume over a few weeks and start over......the week time periods are there for reference and are suggestions rather than set time periods, base your time periods on how you feel. If your feeling run down and have been pushing for a while i would not hesitate to take off a few weeks.....maybe just some low intensity walking/stretching.....

 

[Coach Chris]

When I write a long term program for an athlete the first thing I write in are "zero days" (days of complete rest), the next thing are "zero hours" (downtime between training sessions), next are deload weeks. I start the workload development portion by scheduling active recovery days.
For athletes who don't have specific events or fixed schedules for training I enforce a "If you're fatigued, REST!" rule.
You can only train as hard as you can recover.

 

[OFFHNTN]

I do once in a while, only because I may be out of town for a weekend and don't want to hassle with trying to do a workout. For the most part, I will usually take Sunday's off, or it will be a very light workout. I usually get several extended days "off" from September-December.

 

[Poser]

I typically find that life interrupts training regularly enough to induce forced extended rest, so I don’t ever have planned recovery periods of longer than 48 hours.

 

[Scrubbuck]

One thing that’s helped me is keeping a training journal. I always make sure to write how I feel. I started this past summer and finally have enough info that I can always look back and say “dumbass you did it again.” Hopefully I get smart enough to taper back the intensity before my body does it for me.