Should You Rest or Stay Active? Active Recovery vs Rest Day Guide

After an intense workout, your muscles ache and feel tight, especially where you pushed your limits. You want to recover quickly to return to your training routine and tackle your next challenge. But should you rest and let your body heal, or is there something else you should do to get back on track? Active Recovery vs Rest Day has become a hot topic among athletes, and for a good reason. This article will help you determine which approach is best for you to recover faster, reduce soreness, best recovery tools for athletes and improve performance while avoiding injury, so you can stay consistent and maximize your workouts.

Pliability's mobility app can help you achieve your recovery goals, whether you take a rest day or engage in active recovery. The app offers targeted routines to help you reduce soreness, recover faster, and improve performance to return to your training routine, avoid injury, and stay consistent.

Is Active Recovery Better Than a Rest Day?

According to the American College of Exercise (ACE), active recovery involves engaging in lighter activity during or after a higher-intensity workout to promote recovery.

Christina Jensen, CPT, a NASM-certified personal trainer and AARMY coach, says, "I like to think of active recovery as a spa day for my muscles—light, feel-good activities that help me bounce back stronger.”

Active Recovery: Benefits & Examples

Active recovery often appears during a high-intensity workout (think: a cooldown walk after a strenuous run). It can also serve as a standalone workout to balance out higher-intensity days. 

Common forms of active recovery include:

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• Walking
• Jogging
• Light biking
• Yoga
• Mobility exercises
  
  

Low-intensity activities help your muscles recover and stay healthy without adding extra strain. “Active recovery focuses on promoting blood flow, reducing muscle soreness, and maintaining mobility without putting additional stress on the body,” says Brittany Watts, CPT, a NASM-certified personal trainer and head coach at Tone House.

The Benefits of Active Recovery

Active recovery offers several benefits, including:

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• Better circulation: Light activity keeps your blood circulating so it can deliver oxygen and nutrients to your muscles to help them repair, according to Watts.
• Reduced muscle stiffness and soreness: According to ACE, giving your muscles the care they need to recover optimally can also decrease post-exercise soreness.
• Improved flexibility: According to Jensen, nourishing and allowing muscles to recover properly can also support flexibility.
• Maintained fitness levels: Watts says incorporating active recovery into your fitness routine can help you stay consistent without overexerting or burning out.
• Improved mental wellbeing: Exercise helps decrease stress, and active recovery workouts are no different, says Watts. These lighter activities also allow you to rest and refresh.

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The Drawbacks of Active Recovery

Overdoing active recovery can hinder muscle repair, says Jensen, stressing the importance of low intensity. Going too hard during active recovery can lead to drawbacks like:

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• Overexerting: Active recovery is meant to feel light. But some people can tempt themselves to push too hard, turning a recovery session into a full-blown workout, says Watts.
• Overtraining: That overexertion can sometimes lead to unnecessary exercise burnout or injury, says Jensen.
• Insufficient rest: Watts says that active recovery may not provide enough rest if you’re experiencing significant fatigue or injury.

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What is a Rest Day?

Exercise is a stressor, says Jensen, and rest days are crucial for allowing your body to recover, rest, and reset for workouts to come. “A rest day involves abstaining from all intense physical activities, allowing the body time to fully recover and repair,” says Watts.

“It’s especially crucial for preventing burnout and injuries.” According to Jensen, this can take two forms:

• Light-activity rest days: This is a break from intense exercise while still engaging in light movement like:
  
  • Foam rolling
  • Stretching
  • Core-focused practices
• Total rest days: This is a total break from exercise, no matter the type or intensity.

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The Benefits of Rest Days

Rest days are essential for:

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• Enhanced muscle repair: “The process of getting stronger and building muscle actually takes place during rest,” says Jensen. “We need rest days to let the body recover, repair, and recharge.”
• Injury prevention or recovery: Watts says rest days reduce the risk of overuse injuries by giving the body time to repair. If you have an injury, rest days are also essential to the healing process.
• Enhanced energy: Pushing too hard can lead to burnout. Watts says taking rest days replenishes your energy stores to help you avoid exhaustion and improve your future performance.
• Improved mental wellbeing: Sufficient rest is also crucial for reducing stress and promoting relaxation, according to Watts.

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The Drawbacks of Rest Days

While rest days are vital, there are some potential drawbacks, including:

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• Loss of motivation: Inconsistent rest days may lead to losing momentum and disrupt your fitness routine, says Watts.
• Decreased fitness levels: “Taking too many rest days without any physical activity can hinder progress,” says Jensen. “Our bodies need the constant challenge of exercise on a cellular level to stay strong physically, mentally, cardiovascularly, and neurologically.”

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Related Reading

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• What Is Active Recovery
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• Why Are Ice Baths Good for Muscle Recovery
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• Why Is It Important to Include Recovery Time in a Workout Program?
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Comparing Active Recovery vs Rest Day for Peak Performance & Muscle Repair

The primary difference between active recovery and rest days is the activity level. Active recovery involves light movement aimed at promoting circulation and mobility. You can incorporate it into higher-intensity workouts to warm up or cool down, or use it as a more leisurely, standalone fitness session.

In contrast, rest days prioritize complete or near-complete physical rest. Active recovery might involve light activities like walking, jogging, or biking, whereas rest days typically focus on even gentler options like stretching or foam rolling. Both contribute to recovery, but their applications differ depending on your body’s needs.

Who Benefits from Each Type of Recovery?

Active recovery is ideal after tough workouts when your body isn’t too fatigued. Rest days, on the other hand, are essential when you’re feeling overworked, stressed, or dealing with injuries. Which should you choose and when?

Active recovery and rest days can be crucial to a well-rounded fitness routine. The type of rest needed depends on the person's activity level, fitness goals, and lifestyle. Sprinkling in rest and active recovery days is optimal for achieving any fitness, health, or wellness goal.

When Should I Choose Active Recovery?

Deciding when to engage in active recovery versus rest depends on factors like:

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• Workout intensity
• Overall fatigue
• Personal goals

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For example, I recommend active recovery when you’re not too tired and still want to maintain your routine.

Active recovery is ideal for those who want to stay engaged in their fitness routine while allowing their body to recover. It’s best after tough workouts when the body isn’t too fatigued, or for individuals focusing on maintaining consistency and mobility.

When Should I Choose Rest Days?

Rest days, on the other hand, are crucial for long-term sustainability during particularly grueling training weeks, when you’re injured, or when you need a mental break.

Both are important. By listening to your body and tailoring your recovery approach, you can maximize your fitness potential while minimizing burnout and injuries. After all, recovery isn’t just about taking breaks—it’s about giving your body what it needs to thrive.

Does Active Recovery Include Cross-Training?

Optimal recovery includes both complete rest and active recovery. Cross-training (performing any exercise that isn’t running) can be part of that, but it doesn’t have to be, and more strenuous cross-training is too taxing to count as active recovery.

If you’re building up your training to reach a goal (a first-time finish at a new distance or a PR) or just getting back into running, you should only cross-train at easy to moderate effort levels to balance the demands of your running workouts. If you’re using running as active recovery, keep the duration and intensity easy.

Balanced Training: Mixing Intensity & Recovery

You’re running for fitness, you have more flexibility. For example, if you run three times per week, three to five miles at a time, for the health of it, you could make one run a high-intensity interval workout, one a short, effortless effort, and one a long, straightforward effort.

You can fill in the gaps with cross-training at different effort levels because you’re not building intensity and volume each week to work toward a race. You might do a hill workout on my bike or go to a challenging yoga or strength class. The key is to include two or three more complicated workouts each week with plenty of easy and moderate activity to balance it out.

Related Reading

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• Natural Muscle Recovery
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• How to Get Rid of Sore Muscles Overnight
  
• Active vs Passive Recovery
• How to Speed Up Muscle Strain Recovery
• Muscle Recovery Time by Age
• Recovery Methods for Athletes

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