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I'm trying to figure out how to program rest days into my workouts so as to avoid injury. In this video, Dr Stu Mcgill explain, how even if we are working with safe tolerable loads, well under our maximum capacity, if we do it too often, then it can lead to injury:

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Watching this and other videos on injury management, it comes very clear the importance of rest days.

If we take a premade training program, then it tells us how to take rest days... but how do we figure out for ourselves how many rest days we should take?

The consesus on various reddit threads 1,2, 3 seem to all be in agreement that rest days are needed, but the exact frequency and timing of the rest day, I can't seem to find an answer.

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About the only thing that I have found that sort of addresses this is what is called the Training Stress Score, developed by a company called Training Peaks (I have no affiliation) that offers training plans for cyclists and triathletes. The TSS is designed to try to gauge the intensity of the workout, and project how much rest is needed after to ensure full recovery.

In this link, they discuss a method of using TSS for weightlifting. What I would do is take a look at it, try it out and adjust as needed. In the end it comes down to listening to your body, but this can help give a guideline for doing so.

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One way to look at this is training monotony. Having variance in your workout is importance to prevent overtraining.

From the perspective of running (or an aerobic sport) you can have no true off days but plenty of easy days to vary the strain and have acceptable monotony.

It has a calculator to plan in advance, if you know the effort.

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