When is it ok to take a rest day?

[ex-powderbroker]

Asking 'for a friend'.

[Shredhead]

When you need too. Ain't no shame.
Everyone needs to sometime.

[Hott Butt Mud]

Ask digital death. I'm pretty sure everyday is a rest day for him.

[mall walker]

Wrist pain and/or finger skin tenderness usually lead me to take a rest day.

[adrenalated]

2-3 days a week should be rest days. You'll climb stronger if you allow your muscles to heal and rebuild. Climbing more than 3 days in a row is almost always bad for your body. 2 on, 1 off was always ideal for me.

[Gepeto]

Down days/Rest days are influenced by so much. Diet, altitude, body chemistry immediately come to mind.

If your in top 20% of your game (in your case/top 5, what's your friends bmi?), your body tells you when.

It's the pull of the mountain that can make me make poor decisions, especially in a fresh environment.

Over exercise is a ceiling I hit too. I dont' always know when to rest

When it does happen it's never more than 72 hours.


Another approach to down days are trying doing an on hill day but only using 65% of your reserves. This is hard to do, especially when conditions are ratcheting up.

to add:

Muscle fatigue/repair is chemistry and output levels. Climbing is lots of short duration?

But an approach to any full time athletic; 2 on/1 off is pretty consistent no matter what your in to.

I always applied this when I was a playing tournament pool.

[wingsp4n724]

Depends on the climbing you're doing really...you can climb 4-5 days a week without much issue if vary the intensity. I usually boulder 1 day, hard sport 2-3 days (with a decent warm-up) and may climb 1 additional day on easy routes just having fun and working on technique

[swissiphic]

If you think of long term, like, lifetime long term...taking adequate rest days per week are one matter but also consider taking longer chunks of time off if you're a year round high output athlete. In my experience, there's the general issue of muscle fatigue and recovery but also connective tissue, joints, tendons, ligaments and mental fatigue to consider. Always a good idea to think about full rest weeks and even longer periods of time to allow all the little micro fibers and lubricated parts and stuff to fully regain 100 percent function. It's tough sometimes to use discipline in this regard, especially when recovering from a real injury but always good to remember that barring catastrophic events, life can be long and it would be pretty rewarding to maintain a true active lifestyle into the 70's and 80's injury and chronic pain free. Talking more from an endurance sport hiking/mountaineering and ski touring experience base though, I ain't a rock climber where sport specific issues (hands/tendons/ligaments?) are completely different, I would guess. Personally, every coupla months I'll take the longer exercise free breaks that are comprised of minimal output activities like medium length flat walks and cruisy bike rides...seems to work but I guess the only true conclusion can be reached after looking back at life at age 90 with a healthy dose of hindsight bias.

[grinch]

if your friend is training for something, a good indication is if your resting heart rate is more than 5 bpm higher than it usually is. take your hr first thing every morning. holding a morning wiz can elevate it 2-3 bpm so wiz then back to sleep state then retake.
if there not training for something, screw it. the main thing is having fun and keeping fresh for max speed/strength. if you want to ride every day, do it. despite knowing I was overtraining I just wanted to ride and I'm glad I did
I have a friend 75 yrs young, rides 350+ days/yr on dirt for the last 20yrs. just another day for him. rarely if ever crashes. consistently fast and seemingly never a down day
point is, "rest day" can vary

[concretejungle]

Obviously it varies. I've climbed many days a week with minimal rest and also taken 1 on 1 off or more rest days in between climbing. I usually tried to limit hard days without a rest day in between and never more than 3 days in a row. For me it was important to listen to my body and make myself not climb at all on rest days unless I was doing easy climbs and even then rest days are important. Staying hydrated and opposite muscle exercises help.

[grinch]

it can b tough to tell. ez to train hard/ hard to train ez

[powdork]

rest is for pussies!
did the germans rest after they bombed pearl harbor?

[whyturn]

^^^ The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor not the Germans

But sleep when your dead and rest on the chairlift

[buttahflake]

^^^ The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor not the Germans

For real, with this guy?

[hutash]

^^^ The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor not the Germans

No they didn't, just ask Bluto. Forget it, he's on a roll.

[mcski]

I got a bunch of blank looks last week too while camping w some parents from my kids school an ww2 came up and I dropped the old Germans bombed Pearl Harbor. An entire group thinking who is this idiot? No sirs, I've seen the idiot and the idiot is youse!

[grinch]

^^^ The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor not the Germans

But sleep when your dead and rest on the chairlift

My 75 yr young buds quote after dropping by for a couple days of pedaling w some local buds . After a 5 hr day followed by a 4hr pedal day we were having beers. He says "that was 2 awesome pedaling days now I can go to silver star and hit some jumps for a few days. Rest my legs in the air" . Both my local friends spit their beer out laughing. Fack rest days "live like Vic"

[DropCliffsNotBombs]

Reasons for taking a rest day:
- It's raining.
- Your body needs it. (It'll tell you)

[swissiphic]

My 75 yr young buds quote after dropping by for a couple days of pedaling w some local buds . After a 5 hr day followed by a 4hr pedal day we were having beers. He says "that was 2 awesome pedaling days now I can go to silver star and hit some jumps for a few days. Rest my legs in the air" . Both my local friends spit their beer out laughing. Fack rest days "live like Vic"

Rationality to the rescue. We all have those buds, friends, or 'that guy' in the community that does (insert reinhold messner type of extraordinary superhuman athletic feat here)...but, the fact is, we're not all genetic mutants of olympic athletic caliber. The "Rest when you're dead" approach sounds cool, but not when you're in chronic pain and limping around at age 80 like a normal human who pushed it too fast too far and too long for the previous 70 years.

[grinch]

Rationality to the rescue. We all have those buds, friends, or 'that guy' in the community that does (insert reinhold messner type of extraordinary superhuman athletic feat here)...but, the fact is, we're not all genetic mutants of olympic athletic caliber. The "Rest when you're dead" approach sounds cool, but not when you're in chronic pain and limping around at age 80 like a normal human who pushed it too fast too far and too long for the previous 70 years.

don't sell yourself short. its possible to exercise everyday. more chronic pain = more maintenance(stretching/core exercise). it may seem like 2 steps forward one back to get there but consistency in training and maintenance can build to that. my "bud" and myself both have cp, neither are "olympians. my injury list isn't quite Matt Hoffman proportions but close. I just draw inspiration from people older than myself that still rip.....a lot. "life is pain. pain is EVERYTHING. you, you will learn"(couldn't resist quoting a fave line from "class of '84")
ps say hello to Ducros