Importance Of Rest in Soccer

“There’s no better recovery than sleep”. Soccer is a game that requires lots of training and hard work. Players spend long hours in the field. But it is important to know that after a long training session the body requires adequate rest.

Benefits of Rest

Promotes Muscle Recovery

Muscle glycogen and energy level decreases during the practice session. Due to which muscles tissues will break down. Rest helps to fix both the problems, replenishing energy stores and repairing damaged tissues. If your body doesn’t get enough time to restore energy and recover from injuries then it can lead to muscle soreness and pain.

Helps Overcome Adaptation

Rest helps your body to overcome the adaptation. Adaptation means when your body undergoes the stress of physical exercise, over time the body adapts the stress and you become more efficient. Once you adapt to a given stress, you require additional stress to continue to make progress. But your body has a limit to how much stress it can handle. Doing too much or too little exercise is not going to help. You should give proper rest to your body and do a sufficient amount of exercise.

Promote Relaxation

Taking time out for your friends and family relaxes your mind and body. It also helps you to make a balance between work and family.

What to do on a rest day?

What you should do on your rest day is recovery.

Recovery is of two types: Passive Recovery and Active Recovery.

Passive Recovery

Passive recovery involves taking completely off from the training session and does not engage in any type of physical exercise.

Active Recovery

Active recovery means when you engage in physical exercise, do low-intensity exercise, placing minimal stress on the body.

How do soccer players rest?

Sleep

Sleep is the best recovery method. Most soccer players sleep for 8-10 hours a day. It depends upon your body how many hours of sleep is sufficient for it.

Bath – Hot/Ice

Post-training ice baths are considered a good way to lower the body’s temperature and reduce soreness. Hot water increases blood flow and reduces inflammation.

Proper Refueling

Having a good meal after 30 minutes of game practice is the best time to refuel yourself and will take you on the track to success.

Stretching

Stretching can be the best recovery method. It helps bring blood flow, maintain flexibility, and prevent injury.

When to take a rest day?

According to The American Council on Exercise (ACE), you should take a rest every seven to 10 days if you perform high-intensity physical activity. Although it depends on your body performance. You can also have a rest day twice a week. One of these days may be used as passive and the other will be active. If you follow a seasonal training program, it may include recovery days or even recovery weeks. This is periodization.

Signs you need a rest day

The best sign that your body needs rest is to listen to your body, it will tell you if it needs rest or not. According to a survey, the most common signs of overtraining are general feelings of fatigue, an unexplained decrease in performance. If you feel a loss of appetite, are stressed, have a hard time sleeping, feel moody this may also be a sign that you are pushing yourself too hard.

Conclusion

Rest is important for not only soccer players but for every human being. You should take a rest at regular intervals of time as per your body requirements. Having too much and too little rest is not good. Maintain a balance between both.

Topic covered in this article:

• Benefits of Rest
• What to do on a rest day?
• How do soccer players rest?
• When to take a rest day?
• Signs you need a rest day

Thank you for reading this article. I hope you like this.