What Happens When You Stop Being “Healthy”
It’s one of my philosophies in fitness that every once in awhile, your body simply needs a break.
This is especially important if you’re doing workouts that are very intense and demanding on your body, such as High Intensity Interval Training or things like Tabata Intervals.
You might be getting enough recovery after exercising, but is that really enough?
My answer is – no!
Every 3 months, I take a full week off of exercising.
Now you may have heard that only a week from exercising can reduce your strength levels by 30%. Well in my experience, that’s a giant crock of bull. I’ve NEVER experienced any strength loss whatsoever in a week’s time, and many times I actually will see a nice boost in strength after good recovery week.
(Just take make an excuse that you need a recovery week off if you’re simply being lazy. Trust me, you can tell when you need a week off, so don’t overdo it!)
So Let Me Explain My Own Recovery Week
I like to take a week off from exercising once every 3 months. At the end of 3 months I can literally feel my mind starting to become less motivated to workout, but once that recovery week is up – I’m roaring and ready to go.
I take the full week off from exercising AND from fasting because as you know, fasting while not doing resistance training is a great setup for muscle loss and I’d rather not lose all my hard-earned muscle 
I still try to stay active and not sit on my butt all day, plus stretch more than usual…so don’t let this be an excuse to simply be lazy everyday for a week!
But I think the biggest thing I noticed and what is actually one of the biggest benefits you get to see is that you get to remember what it’s like when you’re not exercising and fasting…
Without Exercising And Fasting, I Feel Gross!
Between exercising and fasting, I’m doing my body a lot of good. I’m 100% full of energy all day long and very, very rarely ever need to take naps – even if I get just a few hours of sleep.
But what happens when you take a week off?
It sucks!
This is what I feel like when I'm not exercising and fasting!
I’m on Day 5 of my week off, and I have to admit, I feel like crap. I would safely say that my energy levels are EASILY 30-50% lower than usual. I have my afternoon crashes again where I need to take a nap around 3-4, and I seem to need more sleep than usual.
And even though it’s kind of uncomfortable feeling like this for 3-4 days (it takes a few days before your body starts to feel “energy-less” again) it’s great for self-monitoring because I get to see what it would feel like if I wasn’t healthy.
It also makes me feel a little more sympathetic to those people who aren’t actively trying to stay healthy – even though it’s their fault anyway. I can understand why they’re tired and lazy all the time, because I know I want to be!
Overall, It’s All Good
In the end, taking an exercising recovery week is a great thing for your body. Even though you might feel a little down, your body gets to recoup and when you start back up again, you’ll be ready to take on the world. I gotta say, I can’t wait to work out again. I’m incredibly excited for it and I can pretty much guarantee you now that I’ll break my previous lifts.
This month I’ll be training like a bodybuilder and splitting my workouts up. I hate working out like that (I like to old-school kind of stuff with sandbags, tire flipping and stuff like that), but it’s time for a change for me.
Just remember, don’t overdo it. If you’re training like a madman like I do – I suggest taking a week off every 3 months or so to let your mind and muscles calm down a bit. If you’re just putzing along on a treadmill and doing easy workouts, you probably don’t even need a break.
Just make sure that after the week is over you get RIGHT BACK into working out because for the person who doesn’t geniunely enjoy working out – sometimes it’s hard to get back into it.
So what are you experiences with this? Do you feel the same as I do, or don’t you agree at all?
Let me know!
UPDATE: I just got done working out for the first time in a week about 10 minutes ago. I just want to prove my point of this post.
During this week off, I stopped fasting, exercising AND taking creatine. So according to what most people say, I pretty much should have lost a bunch of strength.
But today I just beat every single one of my records, plus I ended up working out for an extra 15 minutes without even realizing it (I was trying out a new circuit that would whoop pretty much anybody’s butt – and added it to the end of my workout).
So what does that show?
It shows that my body NEEDED that week of rest! I came back roaring and ready to go, and felt stronger and had more endurance than ever. I’m interested to see what would have happened if I had creatine in my system. I’ll try that next time.
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- Johnine Bailey: You could mix it with water to make it less caloric. Or possibly substitute a cherry powder or herbal instead. There’s a Cherry Blossom herbal that is available, I’m not sure it would do the same, but maybe it would help.
- Darlene Siddons: great post and great 10 ways to attack those last few pounds….loosing weight is about attitude and feelings, when they are aligned right it is really easy…i use Vision Map Videos to keep my goal of correct body weight in a positive realm… darlene http://visionmapvideo.blogspot .com/
- Megan: great story, and so true! And i laughed a few times during this. keep up the good work!
- What Happens When You Stop Being “Healthy”: important if you’re doing workouts that are very intense and demanding on your body, such as High Intensity Interval Training or things like Tabata
- Weight Loss Excercise: You can also check out his post on weight loss goals here – http://hasslefreefatloss.com/b log/weight-loss-goals-getting- crazy/
- Johnine Bailey: You could mix it with water to make it less caloric. Or possibly substitute a cherry powder or herbal instead. There’s a Cherry Blossom herbal that is available, I’m not sure it would do the same, but maybe it would help.
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Jer,Great article and so true. Exercise is so good for the body AND the mind. Thanks for your constant perspective. I’ve enjoyed your journey. I hope lots of others are taking what you write to heart, because it’s the truth!Rick
[Reply]
Jeremy Reeves (admin)
Reply:
April 2nd, 2009 at 6:02 am
@Rick Osborn,
No problem Rick, I hope so too!
[Reply]
I recently took a week off (not by choice). Going back to my plyo class, I was only able to last 40 minutes. However, today I lifted heavier than before, and feel great. Maybe I should schedule some breaks, instead of letting my body dictate when I take them (sick in bed).
[Reply]
Jeremy Reeves (admin)
Reply:
April 2nd, 2009 at 6:03 am
@Eric,
Eric you hit on a very important point when you said “Maybe I should schedule some breaks, instead of letting my body dictate when I take them (sick in bed).”.
I might have to write about that shortly because it’s very, very true and something everybody needs to know. In my opinion one of the biggest reasons you get sick is because your body is telling you it needs a break.
Thanks for the blog idea, I’m writing it down right now!
Jeremy
[Reply]