Day Seven: Indonesia
Sunday is known as the day of rest and that was definitely the case for our team today. After smashing the first week, nearly completing 30% of the journey and putting themselves in a great position for the rest of the challenge, Sunday was a slight cooldown. After covering 992km we’re still on the country of Indonesia. Comprised of over 17,000 thousand islands, we find ourselves residing in East Java, taking in the fantastic views of the rugged mountains and active volcanoes, such as Mt. Bromo. This first week has been a great success, raising £3,792 and travelling over 12,250km. Many of the riders and runners this week have taken a well-earned rest on Sunday, ready to recharge and start the week strongly. Although saying that, we still had 3 people who covered over 100km each, including Kimberley Langley who has ridden 100km plus every day so far!
Importance of Rest Days
Often, one of the most important parts of any fitness routine is rest days. As important as it is to stay motivated and keep working out, your body and mind needs a rest period to recover and recharge. Muscles are built in this repair period. After working out and straining your muscles you need time to rest where your body repairs these muscles and rebuilds them to be stronger than they were originally. Overstimulation can lead to fatigue and burn out, not just straining your body but also throwing your consistency off.
It’s not just getting fit and building muscle that rest days help, but also the prevention of injury and CNS fatigue. Over-exercising doesn’t give your body adequate time to repair the damage and leaves you more vulnerable to injury, meaning you can’t train at all and fatiguing your central nervous system.
Importance of sleep
Sleep and rest go hand in hand, sleeping is one of the essential pillars of health, not just sleep too, good sleep is required for you to perform to the best of your abilities, mentally and physically. Bad sleep can be a nightmare (excuse the pun) and is linked to such issues as higher body weight, greater risk of heart disease and strokes, depression, type 2 diabetes and increased inflammation. Everyone knows the value of a good night sleep and getting this on a regular basis can help with a better immune system, maximizing athletic performance, improved concentration and productivity. Sleep deprivation disrupts the daily fluctuations in appetite hormones and is believed to cause poor appetite regulation whereas a good night sleep will help facilitate the recovery and muscle building of a work out. Studies have shown growth hormone to spike dramatically during deep sleep which aid muscle growth.
Some of the things we’ve covered in our last couple of blogs will play a big part in your quality of sleep aswell, such as diet, meditation and mindfulness. If you would like more information on how to help with any of these, please drop us an email on info@elevatefitnessuk.com We take a holistic approach to our PT sessions, incorporating all of this aswell as the usual training sessions.
There is plenty of advice out there on sleep, not least from the NHS Keep healthy and train safely by taking a day rest and a good night sleep after a day on intense training. We all need it!
Keep updated with us at Elevate by visiting our Facebook and Instagram.
Key statistics
Distance Travelled: 12,292km
Journey Finished: 29.93%
Money Raised: £3,792
Countries Visited: 15 Countries
Day 7 Leader Board
- Emma Jones – 127.89km
- Richard Jones – 124.61km
- Kimberley Langley – 121.7km
Find out more
Do you think we can do it? Please support us and donate to the Just Giving page here.
Keep updated along the way with Instagram here and track our daily progress on our map below too.
