The 7 Types of Rest Athletes Need
There’s a hammock positioned in the middle of our yard. My wife puts it out in the early spring, when the snow has melted, and returns to the shed when the first snowfall returns. It’s one of those “they just don’t make them like they used to” hammocks. The steel poles show surprisingly little rust. I’m pretty sure the ropes holding the fabric to the poles are the same ropes used on sailboats. They’re unbreakable, unfazed by years of weathering. The fabric of the hammock and the poles share a similar green color. If I had to color-match it at the hardware store, I’d bet the house it would be called “Grandparent Green.”
It sits in our yard, three seasons out of the year.
And nobody uses it.
Linsey and I “argue” about it every Spring. She’s convinced that this will finally be the season of life when someone, anyone, will enjoy it. I’m convinced that history will repeat itself. I’m usually right. This hammock has become an integral part of our yard's landscaping. It’s such an eyesore, but because it’s always there, we just forget it even exists.
It’s available.
Every day.
And its presence is a constant invitation for us to take advantage of what it has to offer: Rest.
Made to rest
Nike and other sport brands like ESPN and Under Armor continue to disciple us through their sticky slogans, clever catchphrases, and constant commentary on what it means to “win” when it comes to sport. Just look at the mottos Nike has introduced over the years:
There Is No Finish Line (1977)
Just Do It (1988-Present)
My Better Is Better Than Your Better (2008)
Write The Future (2010)
Play With Heart (2010s)
Find Your Greatness (2012)
Dream Crazy (2018)
So Win (2024-Present)
To be fair, none of these mottos is inherently bad. They all call us to a greater version of ourselves. Sport ministries do the same thing. Athletes in Action (the ministry I serve under) currently uses the phrase(s) “Made for sport. Made for more.” It’s a call for athletes to adopt a greater “why.”
I have yet to see an athletic organization or brand leverage a slogan like “Made to rest.” But it might just be what we all need the most.
If you’re a Christian reading this, you shouldn’t need convincing of why rest matters. Rest needs to be a rhythm, not just a reward. And I’ll spare you a chapter’s worth of verses, quotes, and theology on why you should rest. This should be enough:
God modeled it (Genesis 2:2,3; Matthew 8:24; Mark 6:31)
God commands it (Exodus 20:8-11)
We all know we should rest.
Perhaps one of the reasons we neglect it is less about feeling the need to constantly grind, push, and excel, and more about our lack of understanding of what actually constitutes rest. That’s the purpose of what follows. There are seven different types of rest that each of us needs, to varying degrees. And because each of us is different, the rest required often differs from person to person.
Do you want to know why I don’t lie in the hammock? It’s not restful for me. Quite the opposite. Baking in the sun, sweating, and squinting stress me out! It’s the same reason why a day at the beach is a fun family event, but the last place I would go if I need to recharge my battery. The point of rest is to restore yourself—to know what you need and then obey God by actually doing what is needed to care for yourself.
What are the seven types of rest that we need? Before I share them, it’s important to understand that in each category, there can be both passive and active rest. Just stopping isn’t going to give you the rested feeling (anyone who has stopped activity to veg out to Netflix or endlessly scrolled on their phone knows this). We need the right type of rest. So, what kind of tired are you? Let’s look at the 7 types of rest.
The Seven Types of Rest
Physical Rest: This one should be pretty obvious. We all need it to varying degrees. I coach a local high school cross-country team, and the concept of physical rest is so important for them to grasp. When we do hard workouts (and yes, I understand that for many people, any type of run is a hard workout), their body needs a period of physical rest in order to adapt and adjust so they get the full benefit of what their bodies went through. This includes taking it easy for a day or two and running easy.
Physical rest means getting enough sleep, proper hydration, and nutrition. It’s stretching. It’s the wisdom to say to our bodies, “That’s enough, take a break.”
The act of sleeping each night is part of our physical rest. By God’s design, none of us can go 24/7. Every time we lie down in our bed and close our eyes, it’s a confession that we are not God.
Mental Rest: We need to give our minds a space to pause, a chance to slow down the racing thoughts, the constant planning, and internal dialogue. Elite athletes have identified over 640 stressors when it comes to their sport. That’s 640 things pressing on us to keep going, to push, to strain. Our minds need a reprieve.
This can involve practices like meditation and silence, both of which lower our heart rate and blood pressure, and help us realign our focus on what is most important. For athletes, this might be one of the harder areas to get the rest you need.
A helpful tip to prioritize this could be setting a timer for one minute and write stream-of-consciousness everything that is in your brain. No editing. No punctuation. Then throw it away once the minute is up.
Meditation on scripture is also a part of mental rest. Find a passage that speaks to your soul—and just spend some time thinking about it. If you spend a lot of time studying, then reading (or listening to) a novel might be a type of mental rest you need.
Emotional Rest: We all have emotions, and whether we acknowledge them or not, they impact our thoughts and our actions. Creating a safe place to process emotions and removing emotional masks lets your emotions rest. It allows for their intensity to level out or the numbness you feel to lift, so you can experience what you are really feeling.
You could embrace emotional rest by journaling or processing your emotions with a trusted friend.
You could express your emotions through art or look at a feelings chart and simply name some of the emotions you have experienced recently.
Social Rest: This category looks different for introverts and extroverts. It might mean engaging with people who energize you for introverts, while extroverts may need to pull away and passively rest from relationships.
Sensory Rest: We can’t go anywhere without having screens in our faces, music in our ears, or lights shining in our eyes. To experience sensory rest, we have to create it. Schedule time to disconnect from noisy environments, computers, and scrolling, and actively engage in things that restore you.
To state the obvious, many of us are addicted to our phones and the stimulus they provide. A current study of undergraduate students found that 89% experience phantom vibrations. This is the perception of vibrations from a mobile device that isn’t vibrating. People crave receiving notifications so much that they start imagining them.
Athlete, this might be the most important rest you need. Screens are molding our brains with each passing day. We need sensory rest.
For me, the best place to get this type of rest is to go for a walk or run outside without my phone (or headphones), sit in a sauna (wrestlers, you can relate, right?), or read the Bible with my phone in another room on silent.
Creative Rest: We were made in our creators' image. We create because He is a creator God. Creative rest involves engaging with the Creator and taking a break from constantly creating yourself. This helps to restore wonder and awe and allows us to stop striving to produce ourselves.
Perhaps this is simply going outside and paying attention to nature, and giving yourself permission to just notice things that you would normally look past.
Spiritual Rest: This type of rest can acknowledge the truth we often forget: "You are God and I am not." It can be spending time meditating on God's Word, flipping through an old journal and reflecting on how your life has changed and how you have seen God working, or listening to your favorite worship songs on repeat.
Spiritual rest can also involve spiritual disciplines like prayer or attending a local church. For the Christian athlete, spiritual rest is one of the best things you can do to integrate faith and sport. It becomes your “timeout” to huddle up with your heavenly Coach before returning to the field of play.
