The art of resting
Embracing the transition
December is here, the year is drawing to a close. The last long sessions are behind us, along with the season's goals. The days are getting shorter. The body whispers that it's time to slow down.
At this time of year, the idea of taking a real break can sometimes cause anxiety. Yet research in physiology, sports psychology, and neuroscience all converge toward the same conclusion: a break is not a luxury, but a biological, mental, and emotional necessity.
This winter transition period is an opportunity to let the body repair itself, the mind reorganize, and motivation regenerate. It's a unique adaptation window, so let's appreciate it.
A Physical Break: Restoring Balance
When training continues without sufficient recovery periods, the physiological cost of stress accumulates progressively. What researchers call allostatic load taxes multiple systems: our stress response system, the autonomic nervous system, hormonal balance, and the immune system (Sterling & Eyer, 1988).
In athletes undergoing intense training without adequate breaks, this overload manifests through measurable markers: elevated systemic inflammation, cortisol dysregulation, decreased heart rate variability, altered sleep quality (Rojas-Valverde et al., 2025). What happens beneath the surface eventually becomes visible: increased fatigue, degraded sensations, heightened injury risk.
A real break allows this load to be reduced. The body can finally restore its regulatory systems without the constant interference of training-related stress.
A Physiological Break: Deep Repair
During the break, several repair systems activate. The autonomic nervous system normalizes. Heart rate variability gradually increases. Hormonal balance is restored. Systemic inflammation decreases. Muscular and connective tissues finally have time to repair completely.
This period also allows for the restoration of neurotransmitters that directly influence motivation, attention, mood, and concentration (Meeusen et al., 2013). Sleep, freed from training-related pressure, becomes of higher quality. And it's precisely during sleep that the most important adaptations occur: motor learning consolidation, accelerated tissue regeneration, hormonal rebalancing (Charest & Grandner, 2020).
In other words: rest prepares the ground for future adaptations. The body rebuilds itself.
A Mental Break: The Invisible Consolidation
From a cognitive perspective, a break is equally essential. During the break, your brain "digests" the thousands of kilometers covered this year. Motor learning becomes more automatic, more fluid.
Mental clarity improves. After months of daily decisions—which session to do today? at what intensity?—the brain deserves a respite from this constant cognitive load.
It's also a privileged moment for self-observation. Without the pressure of structured training, we can finally take a step back: what worked this year? What exhausted me? What did I enjoy? This metacognition—the ability to observe our own mental processes—is a powerful tool for adjusting our future approach.
An Emotional Break: Rediscovering Meaning
On the emotional level, the off-season plays a preventive role. Studies on athletic burnout show that it's promoted by repetitive stress, absence of emotional recovery, and loss of meaning in the activity (Gustafsson et al., 2017).
After months of pursuing objectives, we can lose sight of our Why. Intrinsic pleasure—that simple joy of moving, feeling one's body, being outside — can erode under the weight of watts, times, and comparisons.
The break creates a void. And in this void, something precious can re-emerge: authentic desire. Not obligation. Not discipline. Simply desire. This motivational reset makes the difference between a practice that lasts and one that burns out.
A rest period also allows reconnection with non-sporting activities that enrich overall balance. To spend time with loved ones without the guilt of a missed session. To simply be.
Moving Differently: Active Rest and Winter Pleasures
A break doesn't mean total immobility. The concept of active rest allows maintaining moderate physical activity, but by completely stepping outside the imposed structure around one's main discipline.
Winter offers unique opportunities. Ski touring and cross-country skiing engage the body differently and invite meditative sensations. For those far from mountains: swimming unloads tired joints, yoga restores mobility and proprioception, indoor climbing requires coordination and the mind in a radically different way.
The goal is not to "maintain level" anxiously, but to move for pleasure, to discover other ways of using one's body, to rediscover play and spontaneity—everything that structured training sets aside.
Structuring Your Break: Practical Recommendations
Research in sports science recommends an annual break of 2 to 6 weeks. For an endurance athlete who has had a demanding season, 3 to 4 weeks constitutes an optimal duration.
Week 1: Complete or near-complete disconnection. Extended sleep. Disconnection from training apps. Letting-go phase without imposed structure.
Weeks 2-3: Active rest. Varied alternative activities, low intensity, moderate volumes. Rediscovering the pleasure of moving without pressure.
Week 4: Gentle transition. If desire returns, progressive reintroduction of the main discipline. Short, easy outings, without watch or objective.
Essential elements:
✓ Longer and more regular sleep: true catalyst for physical and cognitive recovery.
✓ Different physical activity: skiing, hiking, mobility routines, yoga... to maintain light tone without load.
✓ Reduced mental load: limit sports planning and data analysis.
✓ Social interactions and relational time: a protective factor demonstrated for mental health.
✓ Time to reflect: keeping a journal improves self-knowledge and allows spotting evolutions or adaptation needs.
✓ Partial digital disconnection: reduction of cognitive overload and improved sleep.
Savoring the Transition
The annual break is an integral part of the performance cycle. It's an investment in the next season, an opportunity to let the body, mind, and emotions regain their point of balance.
Winter naturally invites this contemplation. The short days, the cold, the snow—everything conspires to make us slow down. Rather than fighting this invitation, let's welcome it.
Observe what happens within you during these weeks. The anxiety that subsides. The boredom that settles in then transforms. The moment when desire begins to reappear. This desire that is no longer an obligation, but an authentic longing.
Let's savor this moment. Next season will arrive soon enough. For now, it's time to rest, to repair, to rediscover ourselves. So slow down. Observe. Appreciate. Your next season begins here, in the silence of winter.
References
Charest, J., & Grandner, M. A. (2020). Sleep and athletic performance: Impacts on physical performance, mental performance, injury risk and recovery, and mental health. Sleep Medicine Clinics, 15(1), 41-57.
Gustafsson, H., DeFreese, J. D., & Madigan, D. J. (2017). Athlete burnout: Review and recommendations. Current Opinion in Psychology, 16, 109-113.
Meeusen, R., Duclos, M., Foster, C., Fry, A., Gleeson, M., Nieman, D., ... & Urhausen, A. (2013). Prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the overtraining syndrome: Joint consensus statement of the European College of Sport Science and the American College of Sports Medicine. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 45(1), 186-205.
Rojas-Valverde, D., Herrera-González, E., & Bonilla, D. A. (2025). Sports injuries as reversible involution: A novel approach to rehabilitation and readaptation. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 7, 1519404.
Sterling, P., & Eyer, J. (1988). Allostasis: A new paradigm to explain arousal pathology. In S. Fisher & J. Reason (Eds.), Handbook of Life Stress, Cognition and Health (pp. 629-649). John Wiley & Sons.
