I have a love-hate relationship with rest days. I love them because it's one less thing for me to do during the week. I hate them because I feel lazy. My mind is a hot mess.

When I first started training, I didn't even know that rest days were a thing. But turns out, they are super important to your weekly workout routine.

The Active Times says rest days are just as important as working out and "over-training syndrome" impairs your ability to recover.

“When you perform excessive amounts of exercise without proper rest and recovery you may experience some harmful side effects including decreased performance, fatigue, altered hormonal states, poor sleeping patterns, reproductive disorders, decreased immunity, loss of appetite, and mood swings.”

After my first few weeks with Taylor, I hit a wall one day. I felt like it took all the caffeine in the world to get me motivated to put in a lot of work into a lift or two. I didn't quite understand why either. Taylor asked me when my last rest day was. "My last what?" There's where I fudged up.

“You should have at least one day of rest before attempting to work similar muscle groups again,” AT reports. “The general rule is it requires a minimum of 48 hours to recover with full recovery seen within 72 to 96 hours post workout.”

To put it in simple terms, I try to rest (meaning I stay out of the gym *and relax*) at least two days a week. With my busy work and school schedule, this is easy for me. But as summer approaches, I'm going to have a harder time allowing myself to take the rest my body needs.

"Rest days are also a great to take time to shave my hairy back," Taylor says.

All jokes aside rest days allow for you to take advantage of those cheat meals we talked about a few weeks ago! I like to eat a lot of macro-carbs during my rest days and then cap off the day with my cheat meal so I'm ready to go the next day.

"Doesn't matter if you wanna be bodybuilder or ballerina, nutrition and recovery come first," Taylor adds. "Nothing better than snuggling up with the foam roller and Netflix."

I feel like we live in a generation where everyone is going, going, going, and that results won't come unless you basically kill yourself. Please don't do that. Take it from me, it's not worth it. Love your body and it will love you back. That's enough cheesy stuff from me today. Enjoy the beautiful weather!

More From 96.9 Zoo FM