How Often Should You Take a Day Off From The Gym?

According to most if not all Personal Trainers, Coaches, Athletes, and pretty much anyone who exercises regularly, it’s necessary to take at least one day off from training each week. I mean most people take at least two days off each week from their job/career, right? Therefore it would only make sense to take a day off from your exercise routine as well correct?

Well contrary to popular belief, I call bullshit on this so-called “necessary rest day” that we all must take each week to not “burn out” “get injured” or “overtrain”. As I write this blog, I have only taken one true rest day off from training in the gym in the past 8 weeks. To be clear, that’s 1 full day off from weight training in 56 days.

And to be completely honest I feel energized, clear-headed, and knock on wood – injury-free.

Am I insane? Possibly.
Am I a genetic freak? I wish
Am I listening to my body? Absolutely
Am I training intelligently? Without a doubt

Our Bodies Do Not Operate on a 7 Day Schedule

I imagine that you know what day it is today. I also understand that you most likely enjoy operating on a routine that fits well into your work/life schedule. And I’ll assume that you most likely wake up and go to bed at roughly the same times each day (except maybe during your two days off from work each week). All of these things are organized and structured, which is great!

However, do you honestly think that your muscles require a rest day just because it’s time to take a rest day? For example, let’s say that you have Saturdays and Sundays off from your day-to-day job. And let’s say that you normally like to take these two days off from your training at the gym. And let’s say you have 40-45 minutes of free time during one or both of these days. Now let’s say you feel well rested, hydrated and full of energy. Are you telling me that your body still requires to take a rest from exercise on either or both of these days?

My guess is probably not.

Designing A Smart Training Split

I have always been a firm believer that a training split can either make or break a physique. A properly designed, well-structured training split that focuses on creating strength, symmetry, balance and functionality within a physique is going to propel a person to the next level with their health and fitness. A poorly designed training split that has no plan, programs improper exercise sequencing, creates muscular imbalances and incorporates ballistic movements that put excessive strain on the joints and tendons, will only lead to injuries and a shortened lifespan in the gym.

Regardless if you are training 2x/week or 7x/week, your training split NEEDS to make sense. You cannot be performing heavy barbell squats 5x/week just because you want bigger glutes. Nor can you start every workout off with the flat barbell bench press, because you want to build a more muscular and defined chest. Stupid shit like this is what leads to injuries, burn out, and overtraining.

Listening to YOUR Body

Without a doubt, the most important thing I have learned how to master in my 2+ decades of training with weights is to always LISTEN to my body. Don’t get me wrong, this skill took me a very long time to conquer. When I was younger I always lifted and listened to my ego rather than listened to my body. As a result, my progress in the gym suffered greatly. Now that I’m older though, I have become much more methodical with regards to how I approach my training and my own workouts in the gym. If an exercise is not feeling right on a certain day, I simply switch to an alternative exercise. If I’m scheduled to train a particular muscle group, yet that muscle group feels too sore, I simply switch to a different muscle group for that day. If I take one day off from training and come back the next day still feeling tired and sore, I simply just take another day off. If I’ve trained 3 weeks in a row, yet still feel energized and motivated to hit the weights, then I might train another 3 weeks in a row.