Exercising While Sick
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The summer is saying its final farewell for the year. Flu and cold season is right around the corner. If any one of you was subjected to a bout of the flu or a cold, would you continue your training as per usual or would you rest up until the ailment had passed?
You will be pleased to know that depending on your condition, you may actually be able to train through the common cold or flu. The best way to find this out is to do what is called a ‘neck check’.
If your symptoms are from the neck up, such as a runny nose, then it’s okay to exercise. Exercise won’t slow down your recovery, as long as you don’t raise your heart rate and body temperature too much.
Research has shown this fact in a test case of 50 people between the ages of 18-29 who exhibited an upper respiratory tract infection or “head cold” over 10 days. The subjects were split into two categories: those who exercised for 40 minutes every second day with those who didn’t exercise at all. The result was that there was no difference in symptoms at the end of the test, and that exercising with a minor cold did not alter the severity or duration of the illness.
So if you exhibit any of the following, you should be able to exercise, albeit with a little less intensity than you normally would:
- Runny nose
- Sneezing
- Watery eyes
- Sore throat
If you are suffering from any of the symptoms from below the neck, it is best that you take a sabbatical and rest up until you’re fully fit. These may include:
- Coughing
- Fatigue and tiredness
- Chills
- Muscular aches
- High temperature/fever
- Gastro-intestinal upset
As the symptoms ease off in their severity, and you feel ready to engage again in physical activity, it would be more beneficial for you to start out gently and monitor your well being as you go. If your body responds well to your training then you could increase the intensity and duration little by little. Don’t jump back into a level of intensity that preceded your cold or flu, this will only put you into a regressive phase and in the long term you won’t do anything productive towards your fitness/health goals.
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Exercising while sick
This was a a good article so I thought I'd better stumble it.
I never new if I should train when sick. Occasionally I would be sick and still feel
like training. Come to think about it the times I felt like training were the times when I
dsemonstrated any number of the first set of syntoms in the article.
Good work Jamie.
Keir
http://www.4dmma.com/index.html
Interesting...but surprising.
I am VERY surprised by these results. I thought for sure the exercise group would have demonstrated a lesser duration of infection than the non-exercisers did. From what I understand and have read in some anecdotal studies, moderate aerobic exercise and strength training for approximately 40mins each day is actually one of the only "real" things you can do to increase the efficacy of your immune system. In other studies I've read, researchers concluded that the exercisers had a lower incidence of infection and duration of symptoms than non-exercisers and an increase in immune system activity. Additionally, in rat studies, they've shown actual blood concentration of immune system products dramatically increase with exercise[2]
Conversely of course, other studies I've seen have shown that extreme amounts of exercise and stress can compromise the immune system and result in an increase in reported colds and illnesses.
AND, there was one well adhered to trial that I read regarding post-menopausal women aged 50-75 where a specific type of aerobic activity had no effect on in-vitro immune system measurements in a 12mo study[3].
But then that study seems to have been refuted by other studies that showed an increase in natural killer cell activity from strength training in older AND younger women[4][5]
Anyway, exercise and the immune system definitely seem to be closely related and there seems to be no question (at least in my mind) that the immune system can be effected by exercise. I think what remains to be seen is what the best type of exercise is, the duration, quantity, etc and what types of routines can be applied to men and women.
[2]http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/112751377/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
[3]http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/104/6/1648
[4]http://biomed.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/60/10/1315
[5]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18567370
Excellent post!
and impeccable timing... I always wondered if it was okay to train when I'm feeling under the weather.. mostly because I didn't want to spread my germs.. but also because I didn't want to make my illness worse. Good stuff!
Be Blessed,
Mona Liza "MO" Reyes
www.goteammo.com - please visit & sign up on my website & sign up, would love to see you on there!
Hi Mo, Thanks for the
Hi Mo,
Thanks for the comment.
Yeah, spreading germs is a concern, but you know what?
You're just as likely to catch the germs in any other public place. The bus, the train, the supermarket, waiting in a queue even. How about all those other people who need go about their business, not sure they'd stay out home if they had a little cold/chill.
But you're sweet to worry about giving your cold to someone else.
I guess I'm that little more selfish-shame on me! LOL
Right on time...
It's funny that you posted this actually. And although i'm no expert, i'd have to disagree with you on this one. I never train when i'm sick... which I am now. I have more symptoms of your first list & just one symptom of the second, but i'd much rather take a few days off to rest before going back at it. I may drop back a bit, but i'd rather be healthy & go at it than to perform at half. You're right though - it IS possible to train with a cold because i've done it on many occasions.
Hey dude, That's fair play
Hey dude,
That's fair play on your comment.
I'd have to say it's a suck it and see approach. Use your better judgement. I think if you sit down and think about it when you're ill you will know if you can REALLY hit the gym. I've trained through the sniffles and a little sore throat before and I didn't notice anything detrimental in the long term. If I have at least one symptom from the neck down then I'm hitting the hay and resting up.
Thanks again for your feedback