Intentional and Unprogrammed Rest Days

There will be times when you have to make an intelligent decision to take an unplanned rest day (or two) because of incomplete recovery from prior sessions.

Example 1:

You trained quads on Monday and are supposed to train them again on Thursday with a high volume and intensity, but they are still very sore from the last session. Instead, you take an extra rest day to give the soreness more time to dissipate and then train quads hard again on Friday.

Example 2:

You had an extremely taxing leg workout on Saturday, and it is the 6^th week of this progression. You are programmed to have a hard/heavy upper body session on Sunday, but you are still completely exhausted from the leg session — so you move the upper body session to Monday to allow yourself a bit more time to eat, sleep and rest. 

There is nothing wrong with taking rest days when your body needs it, but we highly advise being honest and realistic with yourself here.

It is more beneficial to space your training out with additional rest days and improve the quality of each sessions than trying to train through fatigue and under-recovery.