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Rest Does Not Equal Rust
My dad was nearly 91 when he passed.
And until the day he died, I don’t think he knew the meaning of the word “rest.”
As a child and youth, he grew up in the back of his parents ’39 Ford. My grandparents were lay-preachers who held brush arbor revivals and tent meetings all up and down the Piney Woods of East Texas. They were traveling, going, doing – every day and most weekends.
When dad could no longer do his “go-go” thing due to his failing health, it was frustrating for him.
“If you rest, you rust!” he’d exclaim.
At that point, I knew that science tells us otherwise. But – argue with a nearly 91-year-old? Not hardly.
Having recently had one month’s rest, we’re now into the third week of the Spring Training Term.
Let’s revisit the concept of rest and refine our thinking about it.
In a recent article, author Elizabeth Quinn gave a wealth of important information about rest. You’re welcome to read the entire article (scroll down for the link). But here are my top “take-aways”:
- Getting enough rest is essential after high-level performance
- Rest is physically necessary for the muscles to repair, rebuild and strengthen
- The optimal rest time is between 48 and 72 hours for the muscles that were worked
Now, I’ll be honest here – that last one is hard!
I’m a “civilian-level” athlete – I work out with weights for 20 minutes, then take a 2-mile walk several times per week. But taking those rest days feels like I’m being lazy or somehow shirking my “work out duty.” But Ms. Quinn says: Not So!
The same principles apply to us as Vocal Performers, too.
Here are a few more things she says rest days do for us:
- Promotes muscle recovery
- Overcomes adaptation (now there’s an interesting one for singers!)
- Prevents overtraining
- Promotes relaxation
Lastly, she discusses short-term and long-term rest.
We’ve just come off a long-term rest (the holiday break). The next short-term rest is scheduled for the week of March 17th, with another long-term rest in May.
These are built into our training schedule. The real challenge is what rest you do every day and every week, so you perform at the highest level in your training sessions and on stage.
What’s your Resting Regimen?
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