Originally Posted by
GeorgeBMac
And, I disagree with the myth that the body gets stronger with rest. It FEELS stronger, but exercise is what makes it stronger -- not rest.
... But, actually, the best way to lose weight is through diet. Exercise can help with that along with making the body, stronger, more fit and healthier.
Originally Posted by
wolfchild
Rest and recovery IS NOT a myth, it's reality. If your workouts have a lot of intensity then you need rest or else your progress will stall and you will burnout. Rest is absolutely essential if a person is to make any type of progress in their strength and fitness. It also depends on what type of a workout you're doing. I ride my bike 6-7 days per week but not every ride is done at max intensity, and I also lift weights 3-4 days per week at most. I can not lift heavy weights 6-7 days per week. Weight training is different and you need rest , your muscles need to repair themselves... Strength training, power/speed training, low reps with heavy weights also put a lot of stress on your CNS and they shouldn't be done everyday.
Strenuous and vigorous exercise is absolutely essential in order to make progress, but then you also need rest with it.
Completely agree with wolf here. If you think 'rest is a myth', then you've never trained _really_ hard. It's not just about injuries, although they do show up when training fatigued.
In a truly fatigued state, you will not be able to hit the numbers of a prescribed workout. Your RPE might be maxed, but your power output is 10 percent off and you won't be able to get your heart rate up to the appropriate range. This isn't an issue of mental strength. You can want to do it and be doing your damnedest to hit your workout bogies and just not get there. The only way to get there is to rest. When you rest, your muscles recover, your hormones return to some normal state and your body/mind gets prepared for reaching your next workout goals.
The long and the short of it is that rest is a _vital_ component of any good (or even reasonable) training plan. It's the foundation that everything else is built on.
I agree with George that weight loss, at least initially, is a matter of diet. Once you get to a low enough body fat (which itself can be a stressor), again, rest/sleep starts becoming a more important factor.