How often should I take extra days off?

[Alexis]

You have to be honst with yourself. Are you just "tired" or is your body really overworked?
I had a GREAT workout on just 2 hours of sleep before. Last week I made a lower body day "active rest" and cut it short because I struggled with warmup weigths already and making it a light day was a good choice.
The next workout after was perfect.
There is a big difference between just "tired" or not "recovered".

[GHK]

Write everything down in your log book. i.e. last two nights bad sleep. Had issues on last reps etc. But as the guys say, there is tired and over training. after 16 workouts, I guess you need to get your gear in order. Sleep, eat, get back on the horse.... it is not supposed to be easy. On my Volume Days on the TM, after 1st set of squats, I am literally dropping to the floor. But I know its not tired. Then last Friday, my energy fell off the cliff, lack of sleep, diet, read PPST as per Rips pointer and classic signs of over-training.. so, i throttled back, eat like a hungry hippo for 3 days and ready to get back on horse tonight. If it was easy, everyone would be strong.

[Gene61]

Hey, ChessGuy. You and I are kind of old so we need to listen to our bodies more than the young guys. We can get over trained more easily and just ignoring the tired feelings and working out anyway isn't the answer. I like what GHK said. If you are feeling whipped before you head for the gym or before you even finish your warmups it may be a sign that you aren't recovering. Taking a day off once in a while when you feel that way makes sense. Taking the rest of the week off, however, doesn't. Skip one workout, eat and sleep and then hit the next scheduled workout. If you get to feeling that way regularly its probably time to move to Advanced Novice programming to give your body more of a chance to recover week in and week out.

[thefinalsql]

Came in expecting to see 16 weeks not 16 workouts.

More food, more rest. You are missing one or both.