Monday, April 9, 2012

Making the most of your Rest Day

I woke up this morning, stepped on the scale, and was slightly disgusted. Even with the 16 miles I had run yesterday morning, Easter Sunday, with its delicious brunch, large dinner, and basket full of candy, had taken its toll.

Usually, I love Rest Days. But today, all I wanted to do was get out there and put a few mile dent into the number that I read on the scale. Not allowed. My body needs a day to recover and rehydrate. So instead of running, I turned on my go-to Pilates workout: 10 Minute Solution: Pilates Perfect Body. In total, it's a 50 minute workout, with 10 minute segments for abs, legs, arms, total body, and stretching. The DVD is set up such that you can do the entire 50 minute workout, or pick any one of the individual segments.

For me, this is the perfect Rest Day workout.  It focuses on strengthening your core - your abdominal and lower back muscles - which are so important for runners but sometimes overlooked. Also, timing your breath, inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth with each movement helps you effectively use your breathing. The exercises leave you "feeling the burn" but don't raise your heart rate enough that you're tired or sweaty, which would thus defeat the purpose of Rest Day.

Most importantly, this workout concludes with a little more than 10 minutes of comprehensive stretching. If there is one thing that I need to be better at, it's stretching. And the stretches here aren't your typical bend and touch your toes, count to 10. The stretches force you to focus on your movements and concentrate on lengthening your muscles while maintaining your balance.

Finishing this Pilates workout should leave you feeling physically strong, mentally renewed, and a little better about that bag of Whopper Eggs you demolished the day before! You'll definitely be rested and ready to face tomorrow's run!

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