I turned my rest day into a second workout day

2026-10-10 00:28

recomp had been moving: four lifts a week, 180g protein, bed by 10:30. Then I got impatient and added two 45-minute conditioning circuits on off days because sitting still felt like wasting the prescription.

Sleep slid from 7.5 to 6.2, my top sets went grindy, and my waist tape added half an inch while I kept telling myself it was water. Nothing mysterious. I out-trained my recovery and then side-eyed the medication.

Dropped the extra circuits, kept the four lifts, went back to walking and eating enough. I'm skeptical of shortcuts, but apparently I'm also skeptical of rest.

Anyone else confuse 'doing more' with doing the right amount during a recomp?

2026-10-16 15:19

There was a thread last spring about “earning” rest days—same pattern, different lift. I did two 30-min sled circuits on off days and my tape went up half an inch too, while I swore it was water.

What clued me in was morning resting pulse: up 6 bpm for three days straight. I swapped one circuit for a 20-min easy walk and 5 min of box breathing, and sleep came back before the lifts did.

Curious—were your circuits more zone 2 or high-impact? That distinction changed how fast I bounced back.

2026-10-18 12:14

Classic feedback loop: added stress → sleep debt → water retention → you read the tape as "need more work." Been there. My tell was waking at 3am with resting HR up 6 bpm, not the scale.

What's your sleep efficiency and RHR trend looking like? If latency is climbing too, that's your rate limiter, not training volume.

I'd cut the circuits for 10 days, keep protein and lifts identical, and see if waist drops and top sets come back. Rest days aren't wasted reps; they're the interval that makes the next set count.

2026-10-19 21:26

Not a doc, but the half-inch + grindy top sets combo usually makes me check when I’m taping. My waist swings ~0.75 in from sodium, carbs, and conditioning-induced inflammation, so daily tape lies.

I switched to a 7-day median, same morning, fasted, after bathroom, and compared it to sleep and resting HR. When I added two 45-min circuits, my median ticked up for ~10 days, then fell below baseline once I cut one and got back to 7.5h.

What are your circuits—mostly lower-body/eccentric? That’s the kind that wrecks my CK and scale/tape for days. Are you trackig RHR or HR