RELEARNING THE THREE “R’S”: REST, RENEWAL AND RETURN
Carole Carson
Having mastered rest, couch potatoes can skip this column. What follows is written for the “rest-less”—those of us who neglect the body’s need for renewal. Unless we change our ways, our well-being will be sacrificed on the altar of approaching holiday festivities.
When it comes to operating, I have two gears: full speed ahead (vertical) or unconscious. I associate rest with something forced on children against their will in the middle of the afternoon.
When Is Enough More Than Enough?
An inability to relax may be a female issue, although both of my parents were hard workers. My employers encouraged “workaholism.” As a single parent, I struggled to get my household tasks done before falling asleep. As I aged, increasingly I had a sense of time running out and hence a desire to cram as much as possible into each day.
Nothing I’ve read on fitness addresses this subject. According to the American Council on Exercise, in a survey of 3,000 fitness professionals, the commonest mistakes are related to the exercise itself. Examples are not warming up adequately before and after or working out too intensely or not intensely enough. Not drinking enough water and eating unneeded high-calorie energy bars were also common errors.
What the Council failed to recognize, and what I have only recently discovered, is that getting overly tired is also a problem. Exercising while fatigued leads to injury. Not giving one’s body time to recuperate following exercise also defeats the goal of fitness.
When we’re sick, common sense tells us the body heals better and faster with rest. Moreover, new parents don’t need researchers to tell them that sleep deprivation does strange things to us (makes us anxious and depressed and even elevates cholesterol levels).
Yet how many of us consider adequate rest as an essential part of a long-term fitness regimen?
Work and Rest—Both Are Essential
According to the advice of fitness counselors, I need to take rest and recovery as seriously as I take the exercise portion of my regimen. My body and health do not improve while I am exercising. Indeed, the stress my body encounters while exercising weakens the immune system. Health improvements associated with exercise come only after I’ve finished and allow my body the proper amount of rest and nutrition. This is known as the recovery phase.
Not allowing adequate recovery time causes muscle breakdown and lowered performance in the future. Injuries are also more likely. Ultimately, rest is as important as the exercise itself.
Restoring Perspective
The psychological benefits are as important as the physiological ones. By retreating from an activity, we restore not just our muscles and immune system but also our spirit.
A well-timed periodic retreat restores perspective. We either return with fresh enthusiasm or shift priorities. Following the break, unprogrammed and unexpected improvements in performance frequently occur.
I love tennis. If my game is off, it’s tempting to practice more when, in fact, the opposite is called for. How ironic that doing nothing—resting—will restore the very performance level that eludes continuous effort.
The notion of “less is more” is counterintuitive. Moreover, the notion of rest as a disciplined activity—just as important as the exercise itself—defies logic. Instead of resting only when I’ve run out of steam, I have to affirm its rightful place as part of my daily routine—and affirm it while I’m still vertical!
Maybe I’m the person who needs to add “rest” to her daily “To Do” list. Maybe I need to keep a “To Do—Not” list to avoid overcommitment. Whatever the mechanism for making change, affirmative rest has a rightful place in every sustainable fitness regimen.
