Why Runners Need Rest Days
There are so many benefits to taking a rest day.
Running every single day simply isn’t realistic. That is unless you have incredible athletic genes that allow your body to recover faster than most people on Earth.
At a minimum, runners should take at least one day a week, but no longer than three days to rest and recover. Runners’ legs have been hitting the ground over and over again, and they need a break. The constant impact of the ground affects the knees, calves, shins, everywhere!
Many people I’ve spoken to, especially in the military, talk about how they have big goals to all of a sudden run every single day. I look at them crazy because I myself have not been able to do that. The longest I went running three or more miles a day lasted for ten days.
After ten days, I went to the medics, and they said I needed to take a break otherwise, I’d ruin my knees and possibly be sidelined for quite some time. It’ll probably be really hard taking a rest-day, but you will run healthy and injury-free.
To prevent any of my fellow runners from potentially injuring themselves, here are three reasons you should have zero shame in taking a rest day.
