There's obviously a lot of stuff out there promoting rest days, but pretty much every source promoting rest days really just argues for the importance of recovery in general. My question is: what is the physiological difference between taking a rest day vs not taking a rest day, given equivalent training load?
I would assume not taking the rest day would be significantly easier on the body, as the training load would be more evenly distributed across the week, but the general consensus seems to be emphatically against this. I don't understand science, so is there any scientific backing for this practice that, to me at least, seems completely counterintuitive?
Norwegian Singles Approach seems to be pretty opposed to rest days, and even takes it further in forgoing down time after cycles. I'm curious if this has any potential ramifications and what the rationale is behind this or the traditional approach is. The NSA way of looking at it makes perfect sense to me, but since this such an ingrained practice it makes me think I must be missing something.
I know this has been posted before but I'd like to see something that is less anecdotal and more applicable to "serious" hobby joggers. I've read a lot of the threads on this and I've come across zero useful information. I also haven't found a study that asks this specific question (if training load is consistent).