The importance of rest days for runners

Because rest is not your rival, it’s your mate - and if you don’t get to know your mate (rest), you could be putting yourself at risk of fatigue or injury. To explain the importance of recovery days more, we asked HBF Physio’s Scott to lay down the law of runner’s rest and tell us all about what your body is actually doing when you take a break. Spolier: It’s impressive.

What exactly is happening to your body when you take a rest day?

It’s good news for your body, here’s 6 things that are happening – spread the word.

1. Muscle Repair and Growth: Did you know that running creates stress on your muscle fibers? Especially long runs or intense training. Enter the rest day – the crucial time your body needs to work on muscle adaptation to cope with this stress. This recovery process prompts your muscles to grow stronger and more resilient for the next run making the rest day a very important addition to your training plan.

Hot tip: An HBF Physio can help you factor in these days – and aid your training plan with exercises to do on your days off.

2. Glycogen Replenishment: Glycogen is a form of stored carbohydrate the body uses for energy. When running, your muscles use glycogen. On a rest day, your body focuses on replenishing these glycogen levels, helping to prepare your muscles for a new day of training.
3. Reduced Inflammation: Soreness and stiffness - they often come together and are not the running buddies you want to train with. After strenuous exercise, there can be some inflammation in your tissues (muscle, tendons, ligaments) which rest may help decrease, this then helps reduce soreness and stiffness. Score.
4. Preventing Overuse Injuries: Not to be negative but we have to talk about injuries. Rest days give your muscles, tendons, and joints time to recover, which reduces the risk of overuse injuries like stress fractures, tendinopathy, or shin splints.
5. Hormonal Balance: Increased levels of stress hormones, like cortisol, can affect your sleep and overall wellbeing. Because intense training can increase these levels, it’s important to factor in rest days to help your body regulate and balance your hormones.
6. Improved Performance: This is the big one. When you take a rest day, you're generously allowing your body to rebuild stronger, which means you may run faster, longer, and with less effort on your next run. That’s right, proper rest can improve your performance in the long run and on event day, so see you at the start line Sunday 25 May – well rested and ready to RUN!

When should you factor in rest while training?

Rest should be planned after sessions of high intensity (interval, hill, threshold) sessions or sessions of higher duration sessions (a long run). 

According to Scott, you should prioritise good habits during your recovery days – that means:

• Low-intensity movement
• Stretching
• Adequate sleep
• Healthy nutrition. 

If you're unsure if your symptoms are something to pause or press on with, a physiotherapist can help. They can provide you with a thorough assessment, and diagnosis, plus a treatment and management plan to ensure you have a clear understanding of how to move forward with your training.