You Don't Need a 'No Days Off' Running Plan

You Don’t Need a ‘No Days Off’ Running Plan

Posted by author February 3, 2025 Fitness

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YOU MIGHT FEEL compelled to start running to start a no-days-off streak, a trend social media, brands, and even publications have championed as a sign of next-level commitment or toughness. These run streakers have carved out quite a reputation online (there are over 800,000 #runstreak-tagged posts on Instagram alone), and while many of those accounts are positive sources of inspiration, they establish an extremely high bar for anyone motivated by them to try something new. The problem is, no matter how strong or fit you are, that type of extreme commitment might actually end up hurting you in the long run.

“Unfortunately, social media sites often glorify streaks and high mileage, making rest seem like a form of weakness,” says Rob Dixon, a performance physiologist with Human Powered Health in Boston. “This mindset tends to overlook the important role rest plays in training.”

A “no days off” or “no pain, no gain” approach to exercise encourages all-or-nothing thinking. This type of binary structure sets you up for disappointment, since there are only two options: success or failure. And in pursuit of success (i.e. running every day), it encourages people to push through discomfort and override body signals like soreness, fatigue, or even aches and pains. On top of all that, failure—even just a single missed workout—might discourage them from running at all.

“If you go from a low stress situation and then add a lot of stress, whether that’s through volume or intensity, too quickly, your body doesn’t have the opportunity to adapt and get stronger,” explains Zac Marion, a doctor of physical therapy and running coach in Denver. “If you just constantly push forward, you’re going to run into injury, burnout, and a lack of overall growth.” In fact, rapid increases in mileage were linked to injuries in marathon runners in a study published in British Journal of Sports Medicine, and 72 percent of runners in a 2025 study published in JOSPT Open suffered from overuse injuries.

All this isn’t to say that you can’t work hard. Two-a-day sessions, long runs, and combining cardio and strength sessions will build a strong fitness base—but you won’t see improvements without taking some time for rest and recovery. Exercise is a stressor that breaks down your muscle fibers; it’s the recovery phase that actually builds up your muscles to be ready for the next outing.

It’s time to re-frame rest as a non-negotiable part of run training. Here’s how to do that.

How to Fit Rest Days into Your Running Schedule

Schedule One Full Rest Day Per Week

Recovery needs differ depending on your fitness level, your goals, and a whole host of other things. But “at minimum, you should have one rest day per week,” says Marion. “A newer athlete generally needs two days off per week.”

Scheduling this rest day (or more, if you need them) is just as important as putting a workout on your calendar. “Rest isn’t only for when you feel tired—it’s a proactive way to prevent fatigue, injuries, and burnout,” says Dixon. “A lack of planned rest days puts you at risk for delaying progress or may require extended downtime due to injury. Stay ahead of your recovery to prevent forced down time.”

The best time for a day off is after your biggest stressor of the week, whether that’s a really hard workout or a long run, says Marion. “That’s when your body has absorbed the most stress, and needs the most time to repair and rebuild so it can be stronger for your next workout.”

Recover With a Plan

A full rest day involves little to no structured activity. That doesn’t mean you’re resigned to melting into your couch—but it helps to have a plan in place. “A rest day is a day that has decreased activity that allows your body the time it needs to rebuild and repair,” says Marion. “But you do want to get a little bit of blood flowing to actually increase your rate of recovery and repair.”

To do that, you can engage in passive recovery, he adds. Passive recovery can include a short walk, household chores, a stretching routine, practicing meditation, taking a hot bath, using recovery tools like a foam roller or compression boots, or even taking a nap. “The trick is doing enough activity to keep the fitness adaptations going while not putting enough stress on the body that you need to recover from that stress,” Marion explains.

Embrace Active Recovery

Throughout the week, you also want to include active recovery. This type of low-intensity exercise helps reduce soreness, improve flexibility, and maintain mobility.

“Active recovery—light swimming, yoga, or easy cycling—can improve circulation,” explains Dixon. That increased blood flow helps deliver oxygen and nutrients to your tired muscles and remove metabolic waste. “Active recovery can be beneficial the day after more moderate efforts, like tempo runs or some long runs,” he adds. Throughout training, though, you can alternate passive or active recovery based on how your body feels.

Listen to Your Body

Sometimes, one day a week of rest may not be enough. Your body can only handle so much stress— “and stress is stress, your body will absorb it from exercise, from work, from family, from life,” says Marion. “Your stress load isn’t something you can always control, but you can control how you adapt your training to that stress.”

If you don’t adapt, your body is going to find a way to let you know that you need a break. There are all kinds of ways it sends that message: continuous fatigue, increased soreness after your workouts, workouts that feel harder than they should, an elevated resting heart rate, poor sleep, irritability, decreased or stagnant performance, and even illness can all be signs of overtraining.

When you start to feel any of those symptoms, pull back. “Remember that it’s more than okay to take a break,” says Dixon. “A couple days of recovery won’t set you back on your goals. Take those extra rest days, reduce intensity if you need to, or even replace a hard workout with an easy effort day. Adapting your schedule to prioritize recovery allows you to progress and prevent setbacks—which will help you in the long run.”

Stick to a Smart Split

A training plan should be a living document—something you can alter to address to match your needs in any given week versus workouts written in stone that you feel like you have to do, even when your body is waving a white flag.

“The key is to distribute stress loads and dose recovery in a way that allows you to show up for each session with the energy and ability to execute it in the most meaningful way,” says Marion. “You want to leave enough time between harder efforts for sore, tired muscles to just enough so you can prioritize quality sessions, whether you’re running or lifting.”

These simple, scalable split structures from Marion will allow for plenty of running while still emphasizing the rest and recovery you need to see progress. There’s a four-day plan if you’re newer to running or want less training volume and a six-day plan if you’re really looking to push. The distances and exact routines here will vary based on your level of fitness and experience.