Originally Posted by
Fat Boy
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.
I was responding to the statement that:
"Rest is the time when you get stronger not during the 'workout""
As you point out, rest let's your body recover.... And I like the way you detailed that that recovery involves far more than simply 'resting tired muscles'... And, I would add that it's not just hormones that are returning to normal states but other chemicals in the metabolic process (such as CoEnzyme Q10 for example) as well as all the neuro-transmitters that the
peripheral nervous system uses in its efforts to manage the muscle fibers...
So rest enables your body and its processes to return to their normal states -- but it does not "make you stronger". In fact, rest by itself, is debilitating.