Why Do I Feel Guilty Taking a Rest Day? Understanding Rest Day Guilt in Athletes and Eating Disorders

If you have ever felt anxious, lazy, or like you're falling behind because you skipped a workout, you are not alone. This post covers how athletes and those in eating disorder recovery internalize harmful messaging, the psychology behind the guilt, and some questions to ask yourself to further explore your feelings around rest days.

Many athletes learn to connect training with being disciplined and productive. Thus, when taking a break from training, it can be easy to feel like they are not accomplishing enough or that they are not “dedicated” enough. These messages can get internalized from many different places. Fitness culture emphasizes a “no days off” mentality. Some coaches encourage working out daily and do not program rest days into the training plan, making it seem like they are not even

necessary. Athletes are often celebrated for their work ethic and dedication, making rest days a direct challenge to their identity.

For those recovering from an eating disorder, diet culture preaches that taking a day off will lead to body changes or that meals are only “earned” through movement. Those thoughts can feel incredibly convincing, making it difficult to rest, despite being crucial to recovery.

Sports psychology researchers have a name for one piece of this: introjected motivation. It's when your motivation to exercise is coming from the desire to avoid difficult emotions, like guilt

or anxiety, rather than for the joy of it. It becomes a “should” rather than a “want to.” Research shows that people who exercise because it aligns with their values and goals can sustain training at a higher level for longer, while introjected motivation is associated with higher rates of anxiety and burnout.

Learning to take rest days may require more support from a therapist, sports psychiatrist, or sports psychologist to learn how to tolerate the uncomfortable emotions that arise. In working towards this, one helpful mindset shift could be rest isn't the opposite of discipline; rest is part of the discipline. You have already proven you can push your body to its limits. Perhaps

your challenge now is to show that you can also honor its need for rest and recovery. Mentally learning to tolerate a planned OR unplanned rest day without acting on the guilt is a skill—and a crucial one for building a healthier relationship with exercise and your body.

Here are some questions to ask yourself to explore your relationship with movement and rest days:

• What emotions am I avoiding by working out today?

• Am I moving towards something I value or away from feeling guilty?

• How often am I missing out on events to prioritize working out? Is this in line with what I value most in life?

• What does taking a rest day mean? Where did I learn that belief?

• What other qualities and identities do I have outside of being an athlete?