By I believe that almost all of us hard-working, committed muscle builders take on that tinge of guilt every time it’s a rest day or we feel under the weather. It’s so easy to get caught up in that mind game with that little voice in your head that spreads all sorts of self-doubt seeds- – Am I going to lose my muscle mass?- Am I going to get lazy now I skipped a workout?- Am I going to put on weight?- Will I lose my strong will and momentum?- Am I going to go mad after being away from the metal for just one day? Have you ever thought of the above? If you are honest, you thought of one and could add several more to my list! I call this kind of mindset “training appraisal,” and it affects so many of us. I have a great friend who admitted how tired she was from training. I turned to her and said, “thank god it’s a rest day for me today”, and she then realised a rest day wasn’t even part of her week! No wonder she was tired. After this conversation, she became sick and then took several days off the gym forcefully.She would have bypassed all of this by allowing her body to rest, even for one day. Those of us who train at an intense level may naturally feel the urge to rest after a strenuous workout or two. A good strategy is to try the “2 days on, one day off” or “3 days on, one day off” depending on your training and how much energy you have. After 2–3 days of weight training, it’s ESSENTIAL to take a day off and allow your body and muscles to recuperate. Too much cortisol will negate your gains in a big way. Plus, you will be more susceptible to injury due to sore muscles, joints and stiffness. It doesn’t make sense to train when you are sore and tired. This weekend, I trained legs on Saturday and then shoulders and back on Sunday. They were pretty intense because I went later in the day, rather than starting before the birds sing in the morning. This allowed me to fuel up on sleep and nutrition before the workout. These are, by far, your best training sessions. You can go the extra mile and know you did an all-out exercise. Then, of course, it’s time for rest. After a couple of hectic training sessions like this, I will do some light cardio to get the joints, muscles and blood flowing for recuperation. It’s essential to be active, at a deficient level. I make sure I do this every day for mental health and release any stiffness in my muscles and joints. The best benefit of rest days is that you will be ready to go and perform even better on your next training session. In saying that, there will be some weeks when you need more than one day, and that’s ok. What’s essential is you listen to your body and allow it to dictate your path. Trust yourself enough to know that you will still love training, even after a couple of days of rest. Soon enough, that obsessive compulsion to the high weight training gives you will start to kick in, and you will be sprinting to the squat wrack! On the last note, remember that one high caloric or junk meal won’t ruin your physique, and the same goes for that one day you miss out on training.I hope you found this article helpful, and I would love you to upvote it if you did. Please also join me on my various social platforms and do go ahead and download your Empowering habit changer guide. I’m also on Instagram.