Work and Rest.

"Without rest, one cannot work. But without work, the rest is of no benefit."

Let's take a minute to analyze that, shall we?

We all need rest. Rest is a crucial component of our health and fitness, and without it we would all suffer some pretty messed up consequences. But why is it exactly that we need rest?

For those of us that have careers and/or families, we need rest so that we can be fully attentive to our daily tasks. We have to make ends meet on a daily basis and take care of what seems to be a plethora of errands and miscellaneous things. Sometimes things get "intense" (See post on intensity), but I believe the reason why we deal with all the things we deal with, ranging from small errands all the way to utter bullsh*t, is because we have reaped the benefits and/or seen the benefits of all our hard work. Times will come when you're stuck at work til midnight, throwing off your entire weekend plan, but remember the whole reason you even have the dough for the weekend is because of what you're doing in the office. Your boss, your coworker, or even your coworker's girlfriend will give you sh*t for no apparent reason, but it's just one of those things that happens in everyone's life. Ultimately, all of these things would be much harder to endure without proper rest. Nothing is worse than two cranky coworkers bashing heads while there are deadlines to be met, emails to be sent, and stuff to get done.

So that's our story. We bust our asses, day in and day out to bring home the bacon. (It's a saying.) Therefore, we need rest to keep us going. (Along with the staple caffeinated beverages we're all fond of. And proper nutrition, maybe a couple of intense workouts a week, but who am I to tell you..) By now then, we should all agree with the first half of the quote that "Without rest, one cannot work." What about the second half? (If you don't remember it, scroll up.)

Think of rest as a vehicle. It doesn't matter what quality vehicle you have, if you have nobody to drive it, you ain't getting anywhere! Work is the driver. Now the driver can be a number of things. The driver can be your day job. If your driver is your day job, now your vehicle is taking you to "I-have-a-stable-life-land". The driver can also be your family tasks. Now your vehicle is taking you to "My-family-isn't-dysfunctional-land". (I need that driver, ha.) Your driver can be your health and fitness regimen. Now your vehicle's destination is "I'm-not-going-to-die-and-I-will-be-sexy-and-healthy-land". No matter who the driver of your vehicle is, the point is you need a driver. You need to put in work to see the benefit of rest. Happy training.

Jan