I was coaching a few people the other day on when to take a rest day and one of them said there are probably other people who could use some info on when to rest. I thought it was a good point so I wanted to take a moment to throw some knowledge at you. 

Coach L wrote an awesome article on recovery a while back, if you haven't seen it you should check it out here. I am just going to touch base on when you should probably take your rest day or days.

This is something that is going to vary from person to person. Some athletes have a hard time making it in enough days a week becuase of their schedule. For them taking a rest day isn't much of an issue. For the members who have the ability to make it in practically every day and especially for those members that are a little more advanced/competitive then rest days may need to be planned out. 

Many people familiar with the CrossFit.com method of 3 days on 1 day off will think that is the gold standard of how to properly rest.  The fact of the matter is that this varies and depends on each person and their programming. Remember that one of the things that makes CrossFit work so well is the intensity of it. You should be showing up to class planning on giving it everything you got. If mentally you are beat down and it would feel like you are showing up just to go through the motions, then you should probably rest. 

When you are new to Elysium we normally tell you to push through being sore, that way your body can acclimate to the training and learn to recover faster. After a while you grow accustomed to "living sore," there is always going to be something that is stiff or sore when you CrossFit. That is one of the best things you can learn about this program. If you aren't sore from the workouts after a while, you probably aren't trying that hard. Keeping the intensity up is what makes you continue to progress and make gaines with us. If you feel like the trip to Elysium is just going to be a hang-out hour because "you are SO sore and tired" from the last 2-3 days in a row... DON'T come in. Why? becuase I don't want to hear your whining. Complaining about being tired and sore and how you are "going to take it easy today" will only get you made fun of in front of every one. If you are that tired, stay home!

One of the athletes asked me if the WOD should dictate whether they should rest or not... my answer was something along the lines of , "possbily." Some days the programming is more aggressive then others. A day with shoulder press and running isn' t as bad as a day with max effort cleans and "Fran." Knowing that a day is going to be beyond what you can put out is different. That is NOT "cherry picking," this is training smart. Seeing the wod and deciding you "don't want to do that" is cherry picking... and is effing lame. 

For myself it tends to be any where from 2-4 days in a row before I need a rest. The amount of days i can train can depend on the quality of my diet at the time, my amount of sleep and the programm I am following. I still get this wrong sometimes. Occasionaly I will ponder if I should rest or not, more often then not I will opt to train. Sometimes about half way through my workout it hits me and I think to myself , "I should of rested today." It can be a fine line of pushing yourself just far enough and a bit to far. 
Eventually you get better at reading your body and learning when a rest is needed. '

Coach P