3 Reasons Why You Should Eliminate Rest Days

[Da_Eggman]

Chasing better gains and faster fat loss? Jim Stoppani, Ph.D., explains why ditching your rest days may improve your chance of better gains, and better health.

I'm a firm believer of whole-body training, and when it comes to better results, I believe it's important to train seven days a week.

Now, there's no reason to worry about overtraining, because the human body is designed to work every day without rest. With the right full-body training program, you can safely work your entire body—every day—without injury.

Below are three reasons why I believe eliminating rest days will improve your training results.

Reason 1: Better Fat Burning
Now, it's obvious that the more work you do, the more calories you burn, and therefore the more fat you lose. However, there's another trick resistance training has up its sleeve, and that's activating metabolic genes in muscle fibers.

When you train your muscles daily with weights, you activate these metabolic genes in those muscle fibers each and every day. This keeps those genes turned on and activated, so you end up burning even more fat every single day.

Reason 2: Better Muscle Growth
The research actually shows that with full-body training and training every muscle group each and every day, muscle growth and strength may be improved. This goes back to that same gene activation in the muscle fibers.

Activating genes involved in muscle growth and synthesis each and every day through resistance training keeps those processes of protein synthesis turned on, which can lead to greater gains in both muscle size and strength. By never taking a day off, those synthesizing processes stay turned on.

Reason 3: Better Overall Health
Once again, the key to better overall health may lie in daily gene activation through exercise. Those genes that are involved in metabolism are also involved in health outcomes. Activating those metabolic genes each and every day through daily training may help promote longevity, while lowering the risk of diseases such as depression, heart disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes.

Those are my three reasons why you should eliminate rest days. Check out my Full-Body 5x5s workout for more information on full-body training.


References

1. Gjevestad, G. O., Holven, K. B., & Ulven, S. M. (2015). Effects of exercise on gene expression of inflammatory markers in human peripheral blood cells: a systematic review. Current Cardiovascular Risk Reports, 9(7), 34.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jim Stoppani, Ph.D.
Jim Stoppani holds a doctorate in exercise physiology from the University of Connecticut and has been the personal nutrition and health consultant to numerous celebrity clients, including...

View all articles by this author


Hmm what y’all think

 

[IrateMastermind]

This article should be called the reason why you shouldn't take advice from Jim Stoppani

 

[IShotTheSheriff]

This article should be called the reason why you shouldn't take advice form Jim Stoppani

 

[Bledswole]

Man hell naw

 

[G.O.A.T Squad Spokesman]

 

[Bboystyle]

Yea fukking right. Im at my strongest and look my best on my rest days.


I hate when these articles try to say research shows.....research shows that rest days are needed so

 

[G.O.A.T Squad Spokesman]

Yea fukking right. Im at my strongest and look my best on my rest days.


I hate when these articles try to say research shows.....research shows that rest days are needed so

So many people would burn out if it wasn't for rest days.

 

[Bboystyle]

So many people would burn out if it wasn't for rest days.

Imagine doing that shyt on a cut

 

[G.O.A.T Squad Spokesman]

Imagine doing that shyt on a cut

I'm cutting right now and the thought of that shyt makes my body hurt

 

[The Coochie Assassin]

At this point brehs, you will hear "experts" and people preach anything and everything. Sometimes they do it for attention or to be controversial. Other times, they might really believe what they are saying is the best way to exercise.

This fitness shyt is easy tho. Do whatever works for you and what you can stick to. There's no point of picking up a workout regimen or strict diet if you burn out in 4 weeks and go back to being a couch potato.

Ironically, one of my favorite bodybuilders named Timbahwolf used to work out 7 days a week. Obviously you can't go hard everyday. 4 times out the week, you're going light and your nutrition and supplementation + rest has to be point.

 

[AquaCityBoy]

Even if you want to argue that overtraining isn't real or is overexaggerated, the average person is not gonna have the time or desire to go to the gym and lift seven days a week. It could probably work just fine in the short term, but most people are gonna burn out, even if they don't lift heavy all seven days.

I'm going six days for six weeks as part of a new routine, and as soon as those six weeks are over that shyt is going in the bushes.

 

[Take It In Blood]

I feel like shyt Everytime I work out


I cherish the days when I can just be flabby n sick and not exercise

 

[BobbyBooshay]

Not for me, rest days is when you grow - not in the gym.

Allows me to recover proper, CNS is better thus allowing me to lift heavier or do more reps which in turn helps build bigger dense muscle. For me, that isn't happening if im sore.

Someone on here said - "You dont water a plant everyday, you let it rest and get sunlight to grow - sunlight is your rest days"

 

[G.O.A.T Squad Spokesman]

2 days on and one day off works great for me. I used to go 6 days a week and I couldn't go as hard so that extra day wasn't helping at all.

 

[IrateMastermind]

I don’t know if y’all heard of Neurotyping but it’s eye opening. I believe it’s a pseudoscience with benefits. I’ve taken the course and my gains are coming so much quicker than normal. I learned what works for me doesn’t work for my brother.. and why!

The worst part of this article is there’s no Neurotype that benefits from 7 days/ week training. I benefit from 6 shorter workouts/week. He benefits from 4-5 longer workouts. Most people fall in the second group.