That depends on what 'off-day' is

Hi all-

How stringently would YOU define an off-day? I’ve always felt that if I was not running, cycling, or swimming on a given day, it was an off-day even if I was lifting weights (upper body), doing abs etc on that day. My wife, on the other hand, disagrees. She feels that doing any exertive activities on a given day renders that day day an on-day, and that by lifting on days I’m not running I’m compromising my body’s ability to recover, regenerate muscle, replenish gylcogen, etc.

What say you??? Is it an absolute–is an off-day only a day in which you do nothing more than your regular ambient exercise (walking to fridge, walking to work)? Or is it relative–today’s an off-day from running because I didn’t run?

I hate to cheat myself out of a lifting session, but I would hate even worse to be cheating myself out of optimum recovery.

Thanks!

Dave

Off day is off. Nothing. No activity whatsoever, unless you count PlayStation 2 maybe. Really, you could get away with a workout if it’s really light, but generally speaking you’ll be better served to jsut take off the whole day. FWIW…

Playstations rule. On your off day get your training buddies together and do round robin Gran Turismo tourneys. Lots of beer, bad driving and next thing you know its 1am. Ouch

Bah, playstations arent that good, its all about madden 2003 on gamecube. 4 player games rock esp. with guys you played the real thing with…egos soar, it gets intense!

Day off’s are supposed to be just that, a day off. Personally i dont train hard enough to take day’s off, but when i take them, they involve absolutely nothing!!!

enjoy,

-kevin

Ginsu Dave, you sound exactly like me. You don’t say how old you are. For years I was the kind of person that wanted to work out 7 days a week all year long. I’m 48 now and with age comes wisdom, and lots of aches and pains. Based on a lot of reading in Tri books and websites, I’ve concluded that at least one complete day of rest each week is more beneficial than trying to do something every day. In fact, what happens to me is that I really look forward to my workout after my day off even more now. My day off is spent doing things with the wife and kids. It’s the whole balance thing, which becomes more important as you get older and busier.