Probably the most famous “rest” period was the one taken by The Almighty after a hard week’s work of creation. Shortly after, he commanded humankind to do to the same.

That’s worked pretty well for … oh, a few thousand years now … but in our modern, 24/7/365 world we’d be well served to remember that rest is pretty much a necessity for people who intend to train at a difficult physical skill and succeed at an advanced level.

In a recent article on the idea of Rest and Recovery, Mr. Rick Ansorge laid out a two-phased approach to rest:

1. Active Recovery; and
2. Long-term Recovery

I encourage you to read the full article here as it’s chock full of helpful information. It can help steer us in the right direction as we take a “long-term” (one week) rest from our vocal training regimen. And for those who lives keep moving forward even during the rest, the ‘active’ rest plan works well, as you’re mindful of applying the principles rest to daily work and leisure activities.

At the MaJoVTA, we’re do what exercise physiologists define as ‘periodic’ or ‘seasonal’ training.

We just completed a 16-week ‘season’ of training, now, we’ll have one week’s rest.

That will be followed by a shorter (9-week) summer training term, that also incorporates a one-week rest period. After that, we’ll train four more weeks, then take two week’s rest.

The last 16-week ‘season’ of training for 2024 begins in late August and take us up to Christmas time, which will be followed by three week’s rest.

My best encouragement to you –whether you’re in ‘active’ or ‘prolonged’ rest this coming week – is to be mindful of the need to rest, both mentally and physically, so that we can return to our training regimen relaxed, renewed and ready to go.

Lastly, as we consider this Memorial Day weekend, we are grateful to those members of the MaJoVTA who served: Bill Nash (USAF) and Jason Berry (US Army). Thank you, gentlemen, for your service. And we join you in remembering those who died in the service of our country that we might enjoy the freedoms we all share.