"To bed with you Dr.'s orders!!"

This week has been a lighter week than what us Crossfit Footballers are used to. And it got me thinking about rest weeks. Not days but actually taking an entire week off or going light for a week. Jim Wendler has them built into his 5-3-1 program as de-loading weeks. Every fourth week on his program is a de-loading week, you still lift but its a very small percentage of your usual work loads. So what do you guys think? Do you build in rest weeks to your training regime? Are you forced into them because of injury or time constraints?


One thing that can be very beneficial to training long term (read as life long) is recognizing when it's time to take a break. Most of us, myself especially, don't take time off when we should because we either don't recognize the cues our body gives us, or in my case, we are too stupid to heed the warnings. For those of you that are much brighter than I am. Here are some signs that it might be time to dial it back a notch for a couple days or so.


1. Soreness - I don't mean the normal soreness that comes from learning a new movement or pushing through a tough workout. I'm talking about an unusual soreness or stiffness that "just won't go away"


2. Irritability - If you find yourself getting frustrated with everything. Nothing is going right and everybody you know including your mother gets on your nerves
.

3. Inability to recover - Workouts that you would normally be fine in a day or two from are taking you 3,4 or 5 days to get back to your old self.


4. Inability to sleep - In my opinion this is the biggest one. Your body repairs itself when you are asleep. If you are having trouble sleeping and you re getting up and pushing through a tough workout you are asking your body to keep going without giving it adequate time to repair itself.


5. Getting sick and staying sick - Now before any of you medical professionals email me yelling about how everybody gets sick, calm down. I'm not saying if you train and rest properly you won't ever get sick. However, if you find yourself battling a cold that lasts for weeks on end and you can never seem to shake it you probably need some time off.


The biggest piece of advice I can give you is LISTEN TO YOUR BODY!! It will let you know when it's time to take a little break. Later on we will talk about active rest to avoid the signs and symptoms of over training.