The importance of Easy Days

As a PT your process applied to clients should hopefully look something like this:

1. Assess clients goal (the real goal, not that one they tell you)
2. Assess clients starting point
3. Teach client good technique (possibly ‘fixing client’ at the same time)
4. Creating a plan for client
5. Helping them work the plan
6. Adusting the plan (as life is never simple)
7. High fiving client when the goal is achieved

You could argue all day which is most important, but those are the processes and that is the order in which they need to be performed.

In points (4) and (5), create the plan and then walk the plan, there needs to be a combination of light, medium and heavy types of training. The science of athletic performance and the art of fatloss workouts show us that the best results come from some form of undulating training where intensity (how hard it is), volume (how much of it) and density (how quickly you’re doing it) are varied. There are peaks and troughs in a successful training system.

Unfortunately the media surrounding fitness seems to have created the idea that we have to smash our faces into the wall with every workout we do. This is a modern phenomena. Looking at the historical physical systems we see the idea of yin/yang, soft/hard and relaxation/tension is a foundational tenant. Oldtime strongmen ‘practiced’ and only ever performed extreme feats either rarely (and in private) to test their limit or if they were pursuing a new record. The gladiators of ancient Rome would wake up, train, eat, and then take a nap for several hours, maximising recovery.

Strangely in the iron game we seem to have forgotten how, or why, to go light. Interestingly the converse is true in the majority of the Yoga traditions, where softness seems to have completely taken over (yep, there is ‘hard’ Yoga, go find some pictures of the Yogis from the early 1800’s, those dudes were ripped!).

We can only adapt so much and for so long under maximal or near maximal training, but there are more factors to consider than just either ‘getting stronger’ or ‘burning calories’. There are neurological aspects of fitness training, training as a skill. Becoming better at a movement so that you can either perform it with more intensity or more often. The ‘correction’ of the modern posture and the many restrictions that it forces us to burden ourselves with. And also the fact that we can still experience many of the benefits of training (muscle gain, fat loss, improved mood, improved sleep, etc) with a ‘lower dose’.

In the same way that some poisons can be used for medical benefits (like chemotherapy), some medicines if over used can have negative impacts (too much Ibuprofen will destroy your stomach lining, too many diazapam could kill you).

Exercise is medicine, and like medicine it must be dosed responsibly.

Don’t neglect the importance of your days in the trough, whether you call them easy days, light days, practice sessions, refresher or regeneration days. They are important and will improve your longevity and health.

These days can be use to practice the skill of your exercise, be that barbell training, kettlebell, bodyweight, running, swimming, etc. They can be used to address your mobility issues (tight hips, shoulders, hamstrings or ankles? Get them sorted!). They can be used as pre-habilitation, the practice of low intensity exercises to improve things like balance, coordination and core strength to help prevent injury. They can even simply be fun activities like an easy hike, bike ride, swim or just messing around with an easy game of 5-a-side (emphasis on easy and non-competitive).

So don’t just blow off a planned ‘easy day’, or add intensity to it. Take the time to give your body a little TLC. It’s an understandable thing to do, it’s so easy to measure improvement in ‘hard days’, you either lifted more, did more or hurt more! Regeneration days are difficult to quantify, it’s hard to measure improved medial glute function as a result of doing band walks and bridges (apart from maybe the fact your knee no longer hurts).

Train smart, rest hard!