January 11, 2026, 6:00 am | Read time: 6 minutes
Rest day vs. active recovery: Do you really need to put your feet up on a rest day, or is light activity like walking or yoga allowed to help with recovery? FITBOOK asked long-distance runner Tabea Themann and a physical therapist.
“Rest day is best day”: Many athletes are reluctant to adhere to training break days, also known as rest days. “I was just getting into a good rhythm, I can’t just stop now!”, “A short run is almost like doing nothing…” There are many reasons to squeeze in a short workout. Some athletes are so accustomed to their daily routine that they can’t give it up. Others, working toward a specific goal such as weight loss, fear that a short break will ruin their progress. For those who find it hard to keep still, active recovery is a welcome option. In active recovery, light activity is allowed as long as it aids recovery. How effective is active recovery, and can it replace a proper rest day?
What Exactly Is a Rest Day—and Why Is It So Important?
Every effective training follows a plan. Whether you’re an endurance athlete preparing for the next marathon, aiming to build muscle or lose fat, or playing competitive sports like soccer, volleyball, or tennis: Without a progressive plan, there’s no improvement! Typically, a training plan alternates between training and recovery. That’s why bodybuilding often uses a split routine, where one body part is rested and can recover for the next session. In endurance sports, hard intervals, tempo sessions, and moderate workouts are varied.
A rest day per week is almost mandatory everywhere, as muscles don’t grow during training, and improvement doesn’t occur while active but afterward, during recovery. In this well-deserved rest phase, damaged tissue is repaired, and the exhausted muscle is replenished with glycogen.
Active Recovery as an Alternative to a Strict Rest Day
There are athletes who simply can’t sit still and may even feel stressed on a rest day if they deviate from their routine. Active recovery might be an alternative for them. On an active recovery day, light activity without a training effect is allowed.
What Should Activity Look Like on an Active Recovery Day?
On an active recovery day, you don’t have to completely avoid sports. You can—very moderately and without performance pressure—engage in light activities like yoga or gentle jogging. Or you can take a long walk. Anything that is enjoyable and not too demanding is allowed.
Light activity like that in active recovery keeps tendons and ligaments flexible, improves blood flow to muscles and fascia, and can help prevent strains and other injuries.
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Do I Need to Eat Less on a Rest Day?
Especially for those looking to lose weight, a strict rest day can be a psychological burden because the body burns fewer calories without exercise on a rest day. However, you don’t need to eat less or starve yourself. Ultimately, it’s the calorie balance over the week or a longer period that counts, not what is consumed on a single day. Typically, you have less appetite on a less active day anyway.
How Should I Eat on a Rest Day?
Instead of reducing your food intake on a rest day or active rest day, you should eat normally. The body appreciates nutrients that can feed muscles. This way, you can start the next training session stronger.
Active Recovery or Rest Day? Here’s What the Experts Say
Tabea Themann, Long-Distance Runner
Active recovery or rest day? How elite athletes manage their breaks was revealed by Tabea Themann, winner of the Hamburg Marathon 2022. In her marathon preparation, the Hamburg native ran between 70 and 120 kilometers weekly—an extreme strain on the muscles that constantly needed a break.
“I’m someone who tries to listen to my body. If training feels tough, I sometimes do less or really nothing at all. Sometimes less is simply more,” Tabea Themann told FITBOOK. She especially relies on light activity: “I prefer active breaks rather than doing nothing. On rest days, I often ride my bike leisurely for an hour, or something like that. In winter at the gym and in summer outdoors.” A half-hour run at a moderate pace is also a welcome alternative workout for the athlete.
How does she know when it’s time for a break? “I pay close attention to my body and check my heart rate monitor. I actually wanted to run a 10-kilometer race at the end of July, shortly after the marathon,” she told us after the 2022 marathon. “But I realized it was just too much. I skipped the 10K. That was the right decision. When I looked at my heart rate afterward, I saw it was 5 or 6 beats higher than usual. Taking a break is always hard, but sometimes you just need it.”
Themann knows what she’s talking about, as she wasn’t always so sensible: “I used to train until I was completely exhausted or even injured myself. Today, I’m more cautious and prefer to take a short break so I can be resilient afterward.” Her tip for those who struggle with rest days: “Listen to your body—and don’t eat less than on training days. That’s nonsense; the body needs calories to recharge.”
What Physiotherapist Max Oehmichen Says
Max Oehmichen, physiotherapist and trainer in Hamburg, also understands the importance of taking a break; however, it’s managed. “There’s no blanket answer to whether a rest day or active recovery is better,” says the physiotherapist. Walking is generally never wrong, but on an absolute rest day, the heart rate should stay below 100. “Then the walk promotes circulation without exertion. If you do it this way, a walk can enhance recovery better than a day on the couch,” says Max Oehmichen.
However, the Hamburg native is less enthusiastic about yoga for recovery. It can be quite demanding on the muscles and further challenge the central nervous system on a rest day. “For people who don’t usually do yoga, it can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for the week,” says Oehmichen, “you don’t have that risk with walking.”
Walking as Optimal Active Recovery?
Does this mean everyone should walk to speed up recovery? “It always depends,” says physiotherapist Max Oehmichen. “There are those overachievers who always feel the need to do something. For them, lying on the couch feels like punishment. These people benefit from a real break. Just to realize that it’s okay to do nothing sometimes. It’s good for the psyche.”
Someone who usually has to motivate themselves to exercise and is more passive would benefit from an active rest day. “I think, generally, it’s good to do something on a rest day that breaks the usual routine. Whether it’s watching a movie you’ve seen a hundred times to avoid additional stimuli or taking a walk in nature because you’re usually stuck in the office.”
Oehmichen offers an extra tip for everyone: “A huge factor often forgotten in recovery is breathing. It’s the ultimate for circulation. Turn off your phone and try to be completely in the moment—that’s the essence of mindfulness.”
An earlier version of this article was published online in 2022.