Why YOU SHOULD Be TRAINING EVERYDAY!!

I believe that almost everyone, no matter your current circumstance or goals, should be training every day. However, this training DOES NOT have to be heavy/high intensity training. People always confuse "training" as balls-to-the-wall max effort workouts, but this is not the case. Training can encompass your normal programmed workouts IN ADDITION to active recovery workouts, endurance challenges or mobility work. 

You should NOT train heavy everyday(at least in most cases). Training heavy/to a high intensity every day simply will not allow for full physical and psychological recovery between training sessions. Muscles usually take around 48 hours to fully recover, and so it would be pretty hard to train everyday whilst still optimizing recovery. Of course, there are some programs which call for training heavy every single day, such as the Bulgarian method or the squat-everyday programs. However, these are usually employed by high-level athletes who are on a shitload of drugs.

So, at least 1 rest day should be implemented every single week given that you are an average trainee. On these rest days, you should NOT be laying around on your couch and doing absolutely nothing. Rest days should be used for ACTIVE RECOVERY.

When people think of recovery, they usually think of foam rollers, massage guns and ice baths. However, these typical recovery tools don't really do much in increasing blood flow or increasing work capacity, and their effectiveness is even questioned through numerous studies (eg. this ice bath study). This time should instead be dedicated to active recovery. 

Active recovery entails anything that involves moving the body at a low to moderate intensity. This type of movement is the body's medicine, and will increase blood flow, increase work capacity and decrease muscle soreness. For example, let's take a trainee on a upper/lower split 4x a week as shown in the schedule below:

Sunday: Rest

Monday: Upper

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: Lower

Thursday: Rest

Friday: Upper

Saturday: Lower

 

If this trainee was fond of endurance running, he could run after each lower body session so that his running doesn't impede on his lower-body strength. This running will also increase his work capacity, meaning he can push harder and feel less fatigued after his normal workouts. If this trainee was a combat athlete, he could do neck training on each of the rest days. The trainee could also do mobility work every single day, which will benefit his normal workouts by increasing the ROM and reducing the chance of injury.

This is what a hypothetical "train-everyday" week would look like for the same trainee mentioned above:

Sunday: 2 mile run, mobility

Monday: Upper, mobility

Tuesday: Swimming, mobility

Wednesday: Lower, mobility

Thursday: Hike, mobility

Friday: Upper, mobility

Saturday: Lower, mobility 

 

Essentially, the possibilities are endless! Depending on your hobbies and preferences, you can organize your week so that you do some sort of training every single day! Of course, the activity that you plan to do will probably determine the day that you do it. For example, you probably shouldn't have a boxing match the day after a heavy upper-body workout! But, in the end, this is all individual preference. 

Enjoy!