I find that when I take a day out of the week to let my body rest, it's much harder to get back into exercising again...I'll end up taking the next day off too, and the next...

Is it really necessary to take a rest day (for cardio)? Can I jog all seven days a week instead?

I feel better doing some type of cardio every day (I do aerobics 4 times a week, run on the elliptical/treadmill two times a week, and take a looong walk the 7th day). on your "day off", how about taking a walk? You don't have to do anything extreme, just keep yourself in that cardio mode : )

If you really have a problem, just do some "active rest" and do your "cardio" in your recovery zone... a nice leisurely walk around the block or in the woods/park/whatever, for example. You should rest, even for cardio, and let your body relax. However, that doesn't have to mean "sit on your butt."

You can also do other things, like yoga, some stretching, housework, or just something else low impact that lets you rest but makes you feel like you're doing something.

I started hating my days off too. I hated sleeping in and not working out. So now I have a "fun" day and go play basketball. You don't have to take a day off, however, if you don't do it once in a while, your body is going to burn out and working out will become a big time chore.

I don't think you need a full "rest day", but having a "light" day is necessary to relax your muscles and give them time to recover. Also, if you're only running as part of your exercise, you're using the same set of muscles, which are bound to get fatigued.

I go to a gym for my workout, and mix up classes : 2 1-hr weights classes, 2 kick-boxing classes, 2 spin classes, 1 step class, and 2 yoga classes.

My "light day" is usually only 1 class - yoga, and this isn't a power yoga class, so I'm not sweating it out.

Every week, I invariably take a day off and on that day I set an errand for myself - usually going to Whole Foods or the post office, both of which are abt 30 minutes away by walk. Since I don't have a car... I am forced to walk, but I don't think of it as "exercise", just an errand.

I certainly think you need to have a light-exercise day, but you can still schedule an activity like Fred L said, so you don't feel bad.

Yeah Fred kind of hit it on the button.

Too many people think 'off' days = don't do anything..

I trained for Marathons and when your doing it you have 'off' days... after running 20 miles, i take a few days 'off' of running... but i still worked out... light weights (upper body mainly the day after with stretching for the legs), a little raquetball or something else just to stay limber and not think about the big runs...

They key with off days is do something 'FUN' thats physical. If you run alot, go swimming... If you lift alot of weights, maybe go for a nice walk or play some BBall.. It's amazing how great you feel while giving your body a break from the norm.

I never really take a day "off" but I get so anxious about it when I don't workout int he morning, unless I know that I'm going in the afternoon (rarely), then I get all like anxious, usually I end up going in and running my ass off, becasue I don't want to be sedentary, i don't want to sit around and watch TV, i want to be active. (I have to go to the same gym to play basketball, sometimes that happens).

If I take a REAL day OFF, I better have a hundred things to do, cuz it will drive me crazy. Wednesday for example, I didn't go in the morning (day off right). My fiancee wasn't going to be home until 830 pm, and I was home at 445pm, with nothin' to do. I did some homework (grad school) and I made a modest dinner for one, and I was playing some music all by myself, no TV, and I was going crazy, I ended up at the Sports nutrition store near by, bought a couple things I had been putting off getting (EFA's), and I was like screw it, i went and worked out at lik 730, i couldn't stand it, was supposed to be my day off, and I went in and squatted, deadlifted, etc. had a great workout.

The very least i would do is find a muscle group that has been on rst for a day or two, and that isn't going to get worked in the gym for another day or two, and find something at home to work them. I got some old adjustable dumbbells, do some of that, pushups, situps, something, anything.

Mercedes, sorry i don't share your problem.