If you’re just starting out in exercise, it’s important that you start gradually allow your body to adapt to the demands of sport. Maybe try exercising on two consecutive days, but have a rest on the third day.
If you just keep going, without any rest, your body will soon start to fatigue and you’ll find it difficult to complete any exercise sessions.
If you have just started physical activity or performed a new exercise for the first time, you might be feeling a little sore or stiff but don’t start doubting all those promises of feeling better for exercising.
In most cases this is a reaction from your body as it tries to adapt to the new experience. Starting exercise or performing a new movement pattern can result in:

• Severe muscle soreness
  
• Muscle stiffness
  
• Decreases in strength
  
• Decreases in skill levels

The feelings you may be experiencing are referred to as Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness or DOMS for short.
Although DOMS is not fully understood, it is thought that the feelings generally materialise sometime after the exercise is performed (hence the ‘Delayed’), this can be as long as 12hours after. Feelings may last from a couple of days or even reports of up to a week or longer. It is suggested that some recovery strategies may help prevent or a least reduce some of the associated feelings.
(See below –Recovery Strategies)
The more an activity is repeated, you are less likely to feel the effects DOMS, or to a less extent.

For those who are more experienced exercisers and training for an event, rest and recovery is also vitally important. You may have heard of a term called ‘Progressive Overload’, the principles of which are as follows:

• Training is designed progressively to overload body systems and fuel stores
  
• If the training stress is insufficient to overload the body’s capabilities, no adaptations will occur.
  
• If the workload is too great (progressed too quickly/performed too often without adequate rest), then fatigue follows and subsequent performance will be reduced.
  
• Work alone is not enough to produce the best results; you need time to adapt to training stress.
  
• To encourage adaptation to training, it is important to plan recovery activities that reduce residual fatigue.
  
• The sooner you recover from fatigue, and the fresher you are when you undertake a training session, the better the chance of improving.

Plan your training carefully, include rest days where you let you’re body recover from the stress and begin to adapt to the training. Try thinking ahead to the race/event date, plan different sessions for each week. Maybe do a couple of weeks of more intensive and hard sessions, but follow that with an ‘easy week’ where your body can adapt to all the hard training you’ve been doing.

Sleep is one of the most important forms of rest and provides time for the body to adapt to the physical and mental demands of training.

• Make sure you’re getting enough sleep (8hours per night is a good guideline)
  
• Ensure your sleep is of good quality, make sure the room is dark, quiet and peaceful.

Passive resting such as reading and listening to music are great ways for the body to relax, both physically and mentally.
 

Ensuring the body is fully nourished and hydrated is vital for recovery. It is most important to replace fluids after exercise and to replenish energy stores by eating the right foods at the right time.

Although rest, massage, food and drinks can help to recover the exhausted body, you need some extra help to prevent stiff and sore muscles.