I know resting is important but I can't help but think that I'm just wasting time on rest days. I'm thinking of using my rest days to do light stretching and working on technique and footwork. What do you do on rest days to keep improving and getting better?
I belive it is usually technique building. So not so intensive and just practing how to punch or what ever. Edit: I usually exercise and dont do anything the next day to be safe. No doubt people who do technique in off days or do some sport or martial art at a more full time basis will fill in the details.
It depends on what level of training you're at. For the very new, you'll need more rest days until your body can adapt to more frequent training. For the intermediate to more advanced you need to schedule a lower intensity week, every so many weeks. When you start out you can find it difficult with your enthusiasm to it, and also having to have more frequent rest days due to soreness. You can work on active rest days, when you have a low volume, low intensity exercise that you can do, this could be; Light Kata, in high stances. A walk or light jog. Light weightlifting. Gentle stretching. Studies have shown that active resting can help recovery better than complete rest. For me it will depend on my asthma status also, if it is causing problems I'll have complete rest, that's not to say I would be laying in bed all day, more a case of I don't schedule any workout.
Not exactly on topic, but a little "warning/ reminder", as I am experiencing that right now. I train five days a week plus as many seminars I can get. And I absolutely love it and would prefer to add even more seminars; and free or additional training. But I also notice that rest days really come in handy at times. For once, not to burn out. Admittedly, I don't have that fear in the moment. Bus as a second: Just doing nothing all now and then can actually be nice as well. Reading a book (maybe even on the subject of MA), playing something, ... whatever. Something that doesn't have you work out. Especially in the beginning I would be watching out for not letting the first enthusiasm take over, do tons of stuff - just to be burned out after a few months, once the "new flavour" is gone. Because that would really be a shame. EDIt: I'm certainly not saying it is something that has to happen to you! Before someone might get that wrong. Just wanted it to be mentioned
I literally do nothing on my Rest Days. Apart from what I need to do at home/housekeeping/socialising/Netflixing
For me it depends how hard the active days were. If I'm not stiff I'll shadow box and maybe run a light 5k. If I'm in anyway banged up or run down I'll slob. Always good to take a full rest though. Even a mental rest is healthy and helpful to maintaining motivation and progress.
Rest days are called such for a reason. Any decent programme shouldn't read, Monday lift, Wednesday, martial arts, Friday run, it should read, Monday run, Tuesday rest, and so on. Get in the gym / dojo, train hard and forget it. The work is done and your focus then should be on nutrition, hydration and rest until such time you next workout is planned.
My current routine... Monday = rest day Tuesday = rest day Wednesday = guilt day Thursday = Come on now you should really get off your backside day Friday = It's Friday, chill out now and you can really do some exercise on the weekend day Saturday = Got stuff to do so I'll get that done now and exercise tomorrow day Sunday = It's Sunday already and I've done nothing all week!?!?!...well there's no point doing anything now...but next week I'll really get into it day I have to say...I'm not seeing any gains on this routine.
If you are training hard, then I think you should not do any kind of exercise on the rest day. When I started the gym I planned some stretching and less strenuous exercises to try on rest days. But it was not a good idea, as I suffered from muscle injuries and it takes many days to maintain my routine again. I learned a lot and then I decided to take rest for the whole day it helped me in boosting my stamina and gaining my muscles.