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Taking “rest days” is part and parcel of living a healthy, athletic life. However, the hustle-and-grind culture is changing many people’s protocols. Instead of working from Monday to Thursday and then taking the rest of the week off, many fitness fanatics are storming all the way through, working out every day of the week and suffering the consequences.

“The risk of physical and neurological injury rises quite sharply as the body becomes increasingly overtrained,” says the Salisbury Physiotherapy Clinic, a private neurophysiotherapy specialist. “Tissues and cells need room to carry out essential reparative work, but can’t if under constant strain and pressure.”

Overtraining syndrome is a serious issue in competitive and athletic circles and is often the main reason athletes take career breaks. It can lead to long periods of time out, especially given its relationship to other conditions, like burnout and fatigue.

The primary issue with overtraining is the inability of muscle and nerve cells to recover. During exercise, these tissues undergo stress which exposes them to mild damage. Theories suggest physical tears and oxygen-free radical damage lead to inflammation that requires recovery for the body to come back stronger. However, individuals engaging in overtraining never provide the deep physiological rest required. Then, when they return to the gym, they experience injuries because they are in a weakened state.

“Rest is often the best medicine for highly motivated people who love to train,” says the Salisbury Physiotherapy Clinic. “Even taking several months off can be beneficial, especially after an injury, allowing the body to recover and get back to full strength.”

Overtraining, though, isn’t merely a muscle-related phenomenon; it also involves the mind. Training takes a serious toll on the central nervous system which, as physical tissue, also requires time to adjust and reset after bouts of intensity. After exercise, new stem cells take time to arrive in their new locations, meaning that signal transmission can suffer in the interim.

How long people need to rest between exercise sessions depends on their unique physiology. Rare individuals who adapt quickly can train perhaps five or six times a week, but these individuals are in the minority. Most trainers need around three to four days off per week when they do light exercise, like walking or gardening. Going to the gym and hitting the weights hard day after day usually becomes exhausting by the third week, and the risk of injury increases significantly from there.

“Taking regular breaks from exercise is the best way to reduce injury risk, but a lot of athletes want to give everything they have to beat the competition,” Salisbury Physiotherapy Clinic explains. “That’s why it is critical to change one’s mindset. Athletes who look at rest the same way as training can enjoy superior longevity and won’t burn out as quickly as their younger rivals.”

Motivation is also a critical factor in this equation, Salisbury Physiotherapy Clinic believes. When people work out every day, they can lose some of their passion for what they do. However, when they take breaks, they often find themselves raring to go whenever they hit the track or the gym.

Rest days can be thought of as a mental break from the stress and pressure of training. While some athletes enjoy what they do, sessions are rarely relaxing and often require significant muscular strain and effort. Adding performance usually means approaching the body’s peak capacity, whether that’s lung function, muscle power, or endurance. Maintaining those peaks is only something the body can do in short bursts, not every day.

This overtraining phenomenon is particularly striking in studies on high-intensity interval training (HIIT), a technique proven to improve fitness in a matter of weeks. Here, athletes train as intensely as possible in short bursts, with sessions lasting around five minutes, sometimes up to ten.

Initially, researchers believed people could train at this intensity every day because the sessions were so short. However, studies showed a loss of peak performance after as few as two sessions due to the extreme intensity required to achieve the purported benefits. Only a minority of participants could keep going after the initial leg, equalling or exceeding their prior performances without a break.

These studies shed light on the value of recovery and how it is a critical part of the training process. The body needs to do nothing if it is going to adapt to extreme stress.

“Many people with injuries who come to our clinic tell us about their training routines and how they managed to damage their legs or arms,” says Salisbury Physiotherapy Clinic. “Some of these people are highly motivated to succeed, but don’t take enough breaks to allow their bodies to get back to baseline, and that’s a problem.”

Of course, simply “resting” isn’t the be-all-and-end-all of recovery. Many athletes engage in other “active” practices to support their bodies between gym sessions.

Interestingly, sleep is now taking centre stage. That’s because many athletes are realizing that it is when recovery is fastest. During sleep, the body clears plaques from the brain and arteries while repairing at the cellular level and creating a hormonal environment conducive to growth and repair.

Things like saunas are also playing a role. Many athletes take these five times a week after training sessions to help circulate blood and remove waste products and toxins from the body. Sweating and surface blood flow seem to be highly effective at allowing muscle and nerve tissue to get better from a high-intensity session.

Ultimately, rest days support long-term fitness goals. Many athletes and enthusiasts are playing the fitness game to succeed long-term and don’t want issues like overtraining to derail their progress.

“While it might sound like a cliche, fitness is more of a marathon than a sprint. The goal is to build the body to the highest point it can get in a sustainable manner,” Salisbury Physiotherapy Clinic explains. “This process can often take time, many years for some people, which is why quick fixes aren’t the answer, even with the best supplemental support.”