Rest

The most overlooked, most important part of any training program.  What most athletes don't realize, is that rest is essential to adapting to the specific demands that you place on your body.  when we train, we tear down our muscle fibers and other tissues of the body.  It is the responsibility of our immune system to go back and "clean up" those tissues, to repair them to be bigger faster stronger leaner, etc.    If we never rest and continue to break our bodies down, what do you think will happen?  2 things:  you will get sick, and/or you will injure yourself badly.  If you rest for at least a day or two out of your training week, watch and see how you take off with your gains and goals.  If you don't rest, at some point, you're going to get sick or injured, it's just a matter of time.  So, to have a much better response to stress, a stronger immune system, larger and leaner muscles, stronger and faster muscles, more explosiveness and force production, REST.  There is also something called active rest or active recovery work, such as:  yoga/pilates, playing ping pong, leisurely swimming (not swimming 2 miles!), any other fun and enjoyable games where you are not going all out, 100% (which most of us athletes have a problem doing).  I recently had an athlete (last Thursday) at a speed session black out several times and almost pass out.  She said she had been eating often and her diet was good.  I told her to sit out from that point on and gave her some food, but she snuck back into the group when we were doing 300 yd shuttles.  Halfway through the first one, she blacked out and fell down.  I asked her what she was doing back in and she threw a temper tantrum because she just couldn't figure out why this was happening.  I asked her when her last day of rest was, and she had to think about it for more than 15 seconds, so before she had a chance to answer, I told her that was the problem and she needed to take a week off and just do yoga and then go home and read some good, interesting books.  Do not overtrain yourself, get your rest, and reap the benefits!