A main Scales On Fire theme is that we’re all different, so approaching exercise with the pre-conceived stigma that rest days are to be taken a certain way can be very detrimental.   Exercise should be about exploration-not only the exploration of forms and rules, but the exploration of one’s own body.  Testing resistance to fatigue, testing recovery and forcing muscle memory.   Those individuals not trying to do this simply aren’t seeing the results they’d like.  They also, in my opinion are the people who schedule their rest days according to the World-Wide Order of Muscleheads doctrine.  I mean, they already work alternating body parts on alternating days and must have “cardio” before a strength workout to “balance things.”  As much as everyone doesn’t need these generic structural rules for exercise, neither do they need scheduled rest days.

What they should do is rest when they’re tired, and exercise every day until that day comes.  Also, treating a rest day like fat Tuesday means that you’re treating exercise like a debit program, feeling like you’ll work off what you ate and drank the next day, which absolutely never works long-term.  Being active is about testing the body far more than it is about making the body look better or finding generic ways to do it.  Testing the body brings many benefits, looking better just happens to be one.