You’ve been working out consistently for a while now and have been very disciplined about going to the gym. While that’s what it takes to achieve progress, did you know that after a prolonged period of steady training, taking a week off from working out can actually be good for you?
You might think not working out for a bit would make you lose muscle, but in reality, it can help bring you closer to accomplishing your fitness goals. Obviously, you still need to be in the gym a majority of the time, but every now and then, you may benefit physically and mentally from spending several days, or even a week, away from the gym.
Let Your Body Recover
In my post on how to overcome a muscle growth plateau, I mention that many people don’t understand the importance of giving their muscles enough time to recover. Muscle recovery is critical for growth, so if you’re training too frequently, this actually prevents you from getting stronger.
Having a proper workout split that incorporates rest days should typically be enough for muscle recovery. However, once in a while it can be a good idea to take an extended break just to ensure all of your muscles have plenty of time to fully rest and repair.
Doing this can have an immediate impact on your workouts; on several occasions I’ve seen my strength increase right after returning to the gym from a week off.
In addition, even if muscle recovery isn’t necessarily an issue, constantly working out still wears your body down and induces a lot of fatigue. Giving yourself some time off to re-energize your body will allow you to train at your maximum potential when you go back to the gym.
Let Your Mind Recharge
Aside from physical recovery, you also need time for mental recovery. Maintaining a workout routine requires motivation, discipline, and persistence, all of which can take a huge mental toll.
After a while, you could certainly start to experience burnout, which could easily derail your routine and undo all the progress you’ve made up to this point. Giving yourself a break to mentally refresh and recharge, however, can help you avoid this.
Even if you’re not yet reaching the point of burning out, your motivation and drive could naturally begin to decline after some time. Although you’re still working out, you might not be putting in as much effort and pushing yourself as hard as you should. At this point, a brief rest might be much needed in order to renew your desire and motivation to fully commit to your training.
Explore Other Ways to Stay Active
Taking some time off from the gym doesn’t mean you can’t participate in any form of exercise. In fact, you very much can and should still stay active in the meantime in order to maintain your conditioning and muscle level.
Freeing up the time you’d normally use every day to work out could be a good opportunity for you to engage in other forms of physical exercise, whether that’s trying something new or rekindling an old hobby. From a health perspective, your body can also benefit from exerting itself in ways it’s not used to.
Going for a hike, swim, or bike ride are all excellent, low-intensity exercises to keep you active while not being too strenuous on your body. A casual tennis match or basketball shootaround might also be appealing options if you’re looking for a more vigorous activity, but try to refrain from exerting yourself too hard; remember, you should be using this time to rest your body, not put more stress on it.
Give Yourself some Flexibility
Lastly, having the peace of mind that taking the occasional week off from the gym won’t cause muscle loss just makes life easier in certain situations.
If you go on vacation, visit family and friends, or travel for work, it’s not always practical to find a gym and dedicate time to working out. Therefore, it can be reassuring to know that in circumstances like these, you can cut yourself some slack and skip a few workouts without compromising your long-term fitness goals.
Although it’s great if you’re able to get some training in, you’ll be just fine if you don’t and instead resume your routine once you’re back home.
How Often Should You Take a Break?
The benefits of taking some time away from the gym might come as a pleasant surprise to many of you. However, before you start taking every other week off from your routine, keep in mind that these kinds of breaks are only meant to be used in moderation. Take extended time off from the gym once every couple of months. Any more frequently than that, and it could very well begin to negatively impact your progression by halting muscle growth and even causing muscle loss.
I’m definitely not trying to undermine the importance of working out and suggest you should train less frequently, because in the end, the progress you make is still overwhelmingly determined by what you do in the gym. If you’d like some tips on how to maximize muscle growth in your workouts, check out my post How Hard Should You Train to Effectively Build Muscle?.
