Hard work deserves rest...

One week off every few months, your body is like your mind; give it a vacation. There's more to "rest" than simple sleep. There's more to rest than taking a day off every week. When you're pushing yourself hard, for long periods of time, you need real rest.

Imagine going 6 months without a mental break; working hard every day at a mentally demanding job. Your performance will certainly suffer, your motivation will certainly lower, your enjoyment will certainly diminish. Your body is no different.

That leads me to my most recent problem. I found myself sitting lazily on a weight bench during one particularly disjointed lower body workout. In retrospect I suppose I was meandering through that particular workout, maybe bored, maybe distracted, definitely irritated. I was uncomfortable.

For the few nights leading up to this day I found myself awakened by this dull discomfort in my legs. The pain wasn't terrible, but it was bad enough to work its way into my stomach. I had restless legs syndrome. My response? I called me doctor, and explained that the symptoms I was experiencing were exactly the same as those symptoms that GlaxoSmithKline discussed on their commercial for the restless leg syndrome drug. Based on the expert analysis of my self diagnosis coupled with the information Glaxo was telling me, I must need a prescription to take the edge off...right? So what if the drug may cause me to experience incontinence, loose bowels, erectile dysfunction, spotting periods, sudden blindness, loss of hearing, limb numbness, stroke, heart attack, diabetes, financial trouble, car trouble, loss of appetite, loss of friendships, loss of interest, loss of my 401K, frustration, exhaustion, fatigue, sleepiness, drowsiness, periods of intense energy, euphoria, depression, suicidal thoughts, toe-nail fungus, or sinus infection? I needed to take a drug for this didn't I?

Well, the answer is a resounding no (For our French friends: la réponse est non, For our German friends: Die Antwort ist nein, For our Spanish Friends: la respuesta es no, and lastly for our Russian friends: ответа нет -- I really want to get the point across, and I really like using "google translator"). I didn't need drugs, or treatment of any sort. I needed a day off, maybe even a week.

So what did I do? I took a week off. I finished the workout that day; albeit not well. I then started my week off.

I didn't run, I didn't lift, I didn't box, I didn't row, I didn't swim. The time I took off I spent going on walks, laying on the couch, catching up on recreational reading. In other words, I took a physical break...which in turn gave me the opportunity to take a mental break. A nice physical break, coupled with a nice mental break. It felt good.

A word of caution...you might find it difficult to get back to it. Doing nothing is SO much easier than doing something; only with much worse results. Make a deal between yourself and you. Every three or four months you'll take one week off. This doesn't meant eat garabage and forget about your health lifestyle. Still take the stairs, still walk instead of drive. Just skip the intensity of your training sessions for one week. I promise you'll return completely re-energized.

Like I said, one week off every few months, your body is like your mind; give it a vacation.