Plan to Rest: Why Doing Less Helps You Gain More

If you’ve been running for a while, you probably already know that rest is important. You've read about it, talked about it, and maybe even told others to do it. But are you actually planning your rest with intention or just hoping you get around to it when you're too tired to move?

As we move into the new year, we want to challenge you to treat rest with the same respect you give your training.

We get it. Runners love to run. We love to run. It’s easy to fill your calendar with mileage goals, long runs, workouts, and races. But if you're consistently skipping rest days or breezing through recovery periods, you're not just risking injury you're also short-changing your performance.

Here’s what we know: rest is where adaptation happens. This is not guesswork, it is biology. The strength, endurance and physiological gains you’re chasing don’t happen during your run. They happen after, when your body is rebuilding. Muscle repair, collagen synthesis, hormone regulation, and nervous system recalibration, all of it kicks into high gear during recovery windows . Ignore this, and you increase your risk for injuries like hamstring strains, Achilles tendinopathy, knee pain, or plantar fasciitis.

We have high-quality data to back this up. A large cohort study found that overuse without adequate recovery is a leading contributor to running injuries across all levels. Another study showed that even tendons, which adapt slowly, show structural changes after high load and need time to recover post-marathon. Your tissues need consistency, not to be pushed so hard they breakdown.

Physiologically, rest isn’t passive. It's anabolic. Rest days allow the molecular signals initiated by training (like those that drive mitochondrial biogenesis or muscle hypertrophy) to actually become long-term changes. These signals are transient, meaning they appear after training and fade within hours to days. If we don't give them time to settle, we miss out on adaptation .

Still not convinced? Let your nervous system tell you. Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is a powerful tool to gauge readiness and recovery. High HRV means your parasympathetic (rest and repair) system is functioning well. If you have a low HRV. You’re probably pushing too hard. Studies show HRV can predict training readiness, fatigue, and injury risk better than our own subjective reports.

So why do so many runners skip rest? Because we confuse rest with weakness. But that simply not true, rest is strategy. In the same way you schedule your workouts, you should be scheduling your recovery. That might mean complete rest. It might also mean mobility work, walking, yoga, sleep optimization, or low-effort breathwork, all of which support your body’s ability to come back stronger.

Foundational strength work (like hip thrusts, single-leg drills, or diaphragmatic breathing) is even more effective when recovery is prioritized. These tools help reinforce good mechanics so that when you do return to running, your body is more resilient and efficient.

If you’re serious about performance and longevity, rest can’t be optional. It’s not lazy. It’s not a backup plan. It’s the plan.

So try this: On your next rest day, commit to it. Completely. Take a nap. Breathe. Walk slowly. Let your body do what it’s built to do: recover, rebuild, adapt.

Because rest isn’t weakness.

__________________________________

• Besomi, M., Leppe, J., Di Silvestre, M. C., & Setchell, J. (2018). SeRUN® study: Development of running profiles using a mixed methods analysis. PLOS ONE, 13(7), e0200389. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0200389

• Rabello, L. M., Albers, I. S., van Ark, M., Diercks, R. L., van den Akker-Scheek, I., & Zwerver, J. (2020). Running a Marathon—Its Influence on Achilles Tendon Structure. Journal of Athletic Training, 55(2), 176–180. https://doi.org/10.4085/1062-6050-49-19

• Mutlu, Ş. (2025). Heart Rate Variability in Sports: From Monitoring to Maximizing Recovery and Performance. Research Square. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7129826/v1

• Egan, B., & Sharples, A. P. (2023). Molecular responses to acute exercise and their relevance for adaptations in skeletal muscle to exercise training. Physiological Reviews, 103(3), 1203–1265. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00054.2021