Rest

Hi!

Taking a day off skiing today and have just had a chilled day. 9 days of skiing in a row is probably a bit too much and I should probably have had a rest day sooner. Had a sleep-in, late breakfast, a coffee in the village and then a walk around. We had lunch in a cosy little cafe and it was actually nice to have something else than Japanese food for a change. I had a rye sandwich with cream cheese, smoked salmon and lettuce. The cafe had amazing cakes so we decided to have dessert as well so my boyfriend and I shared a Banana Chocolate pie that was really yummy :) 

Rest is extremely important when you are doing exercise and here are some reasons why:

When you are resting you allow your body to adapt to the stress of exercise and the real training effect takes place. It is no myth that muscles need rest to grow. Exercise or any other physical activity causes changes in the body such as muscle tissue breakdown and the depletion of energy stores as well as fluid loss. During the rest time these stores will be replenished and the tissue will be repaired. 

Without sufficient time to repair and replenish, the body will continue to breakdown from intensive exercise. Symptoms of overtraining often occur from a lack of recovery time. Signs of overtraining include a feeling of general malaise, staleness, depression, decreased sports performance and increased risk of injury, among others.

Something else to keep in mind is that ligaments don't grow as fast as muscles and they tire faster. You need to rest to give the ligaments and tendons time to adapt to and catch up with the muscles to prevent injuries.