Anything Less Than 100%...
Cheat days, Rest days, off weeks, vacations, "overtraining," and a ton of other words can describe some sort of pause or interruption in your routine.
We've all heard these different terms in the gym and around the fitness world. But what do they really mean? Most people make it an excuse to take a break from the lifestyle. But there is a method to the idea. It's not just a cheat day so one can eat improperly for a whole day, or deem yourself "overtrained" because you feel a little tired and sore. Rather, many of these concepts are born with an idea to somehow enhance your training, your transformation and enable your journey to new heights. These methods provide tools to continue the grind. It's important to use these principles as a way to provide assistance and support to your workouts. It's easy to find reasons to not give 100%. It's an exhausting journey to peak strength and it requires quite a lot of effort in your body and mind to maintain the routine day in and day out.
Cheat days are the idea that once a week, you can eat meals that you normally wouldn't during the week. Now the risk with cheat days is the temptation to go overboard. Here is the day that many people, instead of understanding that cheat days are made to enhance your metabolism and keep it from being completely adapted and leveled, just use the excuse to eat a bunch of crap with no reason except it's a "cheat" day. The purpose of the cheat day is to switch up your typical consumption so much like your muscles, your metabolism sees something different and has to alter itself slightly in order to properly utilize the nutrients from different sources. In a diet that varies frequently, a cheat day is not so necessary.
Rest Days are supposed to be a day that your body has some time to let the adaptations and changes take hold. Activity is not completely forsaken, instead, lighter activity is done to keep the muscles active and stimulated but not so much as to break down the tissue as in a typical routine. The danger with rest days is deciding to completely take off from any activity. When you interrupt the weekly routine with a complete shutdown, you can create a sense of slothfulness that will manifest itself in your next workout. When your body stops being active it tries to recover and repair for obvious reasons, but this causes the ligaments and joints to become stiff from the newly formed tissue that will not be as mobile as the existing tissue.
Overtraining is a term that has been used for years and years by fitness professionals to describe injuries of overexertion. Overtraining is a very avoidable condition that comes down to having enough fuel and recovery activity proportionate to your workouts. Many people use the excuse of not wanting to "overtrain" and take days off in between. It is possible to overtrain, but if you have proper programming, and enough fuel in your body, you can train 7 days a week at an intense level.
Giving anything less than 100% to your routine and training is unnecessary. Anything less than 100% wont give you the best results possible. If you want the best return on your training, you need to invest 100% of your effort. In every aspect of your life, you should be giving 100% in order to get the most out of everything you do. Working at your job, working out at the gym, spending time with the family, playing around and enjoying life. Anything less than 100% is just not enough!
Every day... A Little Stronger
