2 Crucial Rest Day Tips For Beginners In Working Out.
If you’re reading this, I assume you are a beginner in working out. That is perfect, because these tips I am about to share about rest days will keep you going and help you actually succeed. Most people overlook these tips, and some people never think to look into it. That is fine, though, because beginners usually don’t know what they are looking for answers to. Before I go on, I want to thank you for reading this. It means a lot.
Tip 1: Get Active For Your Goals
This is NOT your typical ‘set goals’ tip. This is a tip telling you to START on your goals. Let’s face it, you have goals that you have never actually started. Maybe you don’t have written, concrete goals, but I know you have something lingering in your mind that you’d like to do. You have been told a hundred times to “chase your dreams” and “set goals for yourself,” but you find yourself stuck. You’re stuck because you haven’t started. It is that simple.
What happens when you actually start chasing your goals is you experience greater happiness, greater drive, and overall a greater life. This seems ironic because you feel like you will have constant doubt and fear once you start going after what you want. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. This is because humans are naturally goal oriented. Your brain is literally programmed to think in terms of goals it sets for itself. You need to realize that you have these goals for a reason. Why in the world would billions of humans have goals in the back of their minds just to sit on them. It just doesn’t make sense to do nothing.
You might be thinking, what does this have to do with rest days? Well, it sets you up for success. You will be utilizing your rest days to practice self evolution, and this will carry on to your workouts too. Be real, your rest days don’t feel as fulfilling as your workout days. Going after your goals on your rest days will help you keep and even experience greater fulfillment.
And speaking from experience, once you start going after your goals you will feel much greater drive in your life. You’ll feel more energized. You will actually want to keep going because the hardest thing about goals is starting. I want to emphasize that again. The hardest part about goals is starting. Once you start, you’ll adapt and grow as you persist. Just start.
Tip 2: Get Enough Sleep
I know, you have heard this a million times. Get enough sleep. The problem is you don’t know how important sleep actually is. You take it too lightly. Sleep may be the single most important part in working out. Sleep is where recovery takes place, where you heal yourself. In fact, sleeping 8 hours a night actually is what you should do. You are told this and have been told this all your life without someone telling you why. I am about to explain why.
The reason you need 8 hours of sleep per night is because our sleep happens in cycles. When you sleep, your brain goes through these sleep cycles, and completing all of these cycles is important for your body. Let’s fill you in on some of the details of each of the 5 stages of sleep.
Stage 1
Just after nodding off, your brain produces alpha and theta waves and your eye movements slow down. In this stage, you are lightly sleeping, meaning you can be awoken easily. This stage usually lasts up to seven minutes.
Stage 2
This stage is also a fairly light sleep stage, and in this stage your brain increases brain wave frequency known as spindles. Then, the brain waves slow down.
Stages 3 & 4
These stages are where deep sleep starts to dake place. During stage 3, you won’t experience any eye movements or muscle activity. Both of the stages are where it is harder for you to be awakened because your body lets its guard down, becoming less reactive to outside stimuli. The brain produces more delta waves during this deeper sleep, putting you in an even deeper and more restorative stage of sleep. This stage of sleep, stage 4, is mainly where your body repairs its muscles and tissues, stimulates growth and development, immune function, and the build up of energy for when you awaken.
Stage 5: REM Sleep
This stage of sleep is usually entered after around 90 minutes of falling asleep, with each REM stage lasting up to an hour. The average adult experiences about 5 or 6 REM sleep cycles per night. This stage is where your brain becomes more active and your eyes jerk back and forth. This stage is where most dreaming occurs, along with faster breathing and elevated heart rate.
This is a little bit off topic, but I believe that the dream stage of sleep is so much more powerful than people realize. It just doesn’t make sense to me that dreaming is just our minds creating pictures and playing out random movies. I feel like dreams can have such a deeper meaning.
To End Off
Of course, there are so many other great tips out there, but these are the ones that called to me to share with you. These are tips nobody truly elaborates on, at least to the extent where you realize their true importance. If you feel like I provided you with value, I want to let you know that I am developing a complete beginner training program. It won’t just be a training program, it will be a complete guide that explains even the ideas presented in this article. Read more about it HERE.
Action Steps:
Start going after your goals right now. Yes, literally right now do something to start on your goals. Remember, starting is the hardest part. Also, yes, I tricked you. I don’t care if it isn’t a rest day. Start.
For one week, practice getting 8 hours of sleep. I will make a deal with you, too. If you feel like getting the 8 hours of sleep didn’t do anything for you, go ahead and stick with what you do now. You won’t be losing anything.
Nevertheless, thank you again for reading this. Go change your life. Evolve.
Originally published at https://www.austinrodefit.com on November 18, 2020.
