No Days Off
No days off, that’s what we’re told it takes to be great…right? Wrong. That is what I told myself, and how my mind was wired during my entire career. I hated taking days off. In college, we were required to have one day off a week during season, but for some reason I felt that rule didn’t apply to me. I saw an “off day” for others as an opportunity for me to get ahead of everyone else. I was that girl who always stayed after practice, during season and in off-season. I’m pretty sure all of my coaches wanted to block my number because I would always ask them to come early or stay after practice with me. I am not sorry I did that, and am not saying it is bad to be this girl, but I definitely crossed the line here. Not only did I cross this line, I broad jumped over it and built a house there. I wanted to be as strong, fast, and just straight up as good as I could be, and I thought I would achieve all of those things by going all out all the time. I had goals, and they weren’t going to get achieved by me taking a rest day (or so I thought). I used to get so frustrated because I was working out constantly, but wasn’t seeing the drastic changes I thought I should have been. Little did I know that I was simply hurting my body by not resting, because proper recovery time is essential for building muscle.
Somewhere along the way, resting and taking time off has become frowned upon. There is a negative association that often comes with listening to our bodies, especially for athletes. In the athletic world, the synonym for the word “rest” is actually “lazy or weak.”
I remember going on runs around campus my freshman year on our off days, because I couldn’t stand the thought of letting my body rest. I would also be on edge the whole time because I was worried my teammates or coaches would see me…how much more extra could I have been? I am unsure of what my 18 year old brain thought I was accomplishing by casually running miles, and how I thought that was going to translate onto the volleyball court. I honestly don’t even enjoy running that much. As I got older, it didn’t get any better, I just got more creative with new ways to work my body into the ground.
During the off-season, we would spend Wednesday’s doing yoga and mobility…two things I absolutely hated. I didn’t enjoy doing either of these because I was terrible at both of them, and I genuinely thought it was a waste of my time to workout without reaching max heart rate. I did finally learn how to do a cartwheel during mobility though, so I guess it wasn’t a complete waste of time. Once we finished up mobility and yoga, I would wait until all of my teammates left the gym so that I could scurry off and go run on the treadmill, or even to the weight room. After team weights when I felt like it wasn’t hard enough or I had more left in me, I would stay behind and do cute things like sprints on the treadmill or whatever else I came up with. At the time, I saw this as me pushing myself and wanting to be the best I could, but I was honestly just obsessed with working out. It wasn’t until my junior/senior year that I started to channel this over-training for a better cause. I was still working out an unnecessary amount, but I knew that going beyond would not only help me reach my goals, but it was ultimately for the betterment of my team as well. This is how I justified all of the excessive training. Instead of going into the new week, or next day, feeling rejuvenated and refreshed, I felt even more tired and worn down. I was denying my body the ability to heal itself, and I wish I knew that at the time.
Don’t get me wrong, to have an edge at anything, life or sport, you’re going to have to do one rep more than everyone else and put in extra work when no one is watching. I never wanted to let anyone outwork me (clearly even on rest days), and I don’t think that I would have been quite as successful had I just been along for the ride and done the bare minimum to get by. At the same time, I think I could’ve taken a breath or two and actually utilized and benefited from those forbidden “off days.” Part of the reason I was afraid to rest was that I subconsciously believed my body would change, or I’d somehow gain weight within those 24 hours. If I’m being honest, I still struggle with letting myself take extra days off, but I am working on that. I have a hard time knowing when I need to take an additional day off, or when I should just push through and stop being “mentally weak.” I usually go with the latter, because that’s been my mentality for my entire life and it’s hard to turn that off after all these years. As athletes we are told not to be soft and that us feeling weak or sore is not an excuse to not go all out. While it’s true that we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard and push hard when it hurts, it’s important that we listen to our bodies and rest when we have the opportunity to do so.
Nothing worth having will ever be handed to you and you’re going to have to do what others won’t to set yourself apart, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun and stop to breathe every now and then. I’ll be the first one to encourage you to go all out to accomplish that dream of yours, just be careful that you’re going about it the right way. Rest days are important and they are implemented for a reason. I’m not just referring to physical activity, but in your everyday life or job as well. We all need a day to recharge, not only in terms of physical recovery, but for the betterment of our mental health as well.