Part 1
This week I struggled with a question that I'm sure plagues any of us who are dedicated athletes. Do I work out when I'm sick? And, if I do, how hard do I go? If I don't, how do I I know when I'm well enough to start again?
Like most of us, I want to maintain the positive habit of working out, without missing a beat. I want to continue to make progress. I'm afraid that if I miss one scheduled day, that it's the start of missing many days, the start of back-sliding. At the same time, I don't want to do something that's going to lengthen my illness, and further stand in the way of making progress. What's a person to do?
Most of the discussion on this topic that I've seen in the popular press, over the years, goes something like this: If your symptoms are all above the neck, meaning you have a head cold, go ahead and work out if you want. You may not have a strong workout, but you're not going to do any damage. (This might be particularly useful during a pre-contest phase for a bodybuilder where daily fat loss is vital to preparing for the stage.) On the flip side, this conventional reporting says to avoid exercise if symptoms present below the neck and/or if you're running a fever. Exercising in these cases, it's said will further compromise an already strained immune system, leading to worsened symptoms and an illness of longer duration.
When it comes to getting back into your routine following an illness, there is very little guidance offered, other than, don't resume until you feel well. Hardly a prescription.
My views are a little different from those normally offered and I do have a methodology for determining when and how hard to resume your program as you recover from an illness.
In most cases, at least with the initial onset of an illness, I recommend staying the course, no matter the presenting symptoms. That is, if you're scheduled to exercise, do it.
The reason for this is two-fold. First, all of the things we do to optimize fitness or sports performance also boost the immune system; intense exercise, adequate rest and recuperation, and sound nutrition all lead to a better immune response. If your performance is improving, it can be assumed that all of these components are suitably balanced and that a correlating improvement in the immune system is occurring. If you are not improving, if you are loosing strength or overtrained for example, one of these factors is not optimal and a correlating decline in the immune system can be inferred.
The second reason (not clinically proven, but true to my observations) is the direct effect of exercise on pathogens (germs) trying to exert their influence on your body.
Many times, if I stay the course, and continue to exercise one to three times a day, emerging symptoms will subside after 24 hours and the full-blown illness will never manifest itself. I believe that it's the exercise itself that has this effect.
I hypothesize that daily, even better twice or thrice, daily exercise has a separate immune building benefit in that it raises body core temperature, creating an artificial "fever" that is inhospitable to pathogens. It's not an apple a day that keeps the doctor away; it's daily, intense exercise. In fact, I find that on the few occasions I do get sick, it invariably follows one or two days where I did not exercise at all, and did not benefit from that germ killing "fever."
As well, I believe that intense exercise also serves to enhance and speed the functioning of your digestive, vascular, and lymphatic symptoms, literally flushing pathogens more quickly out of your body. When you don't exercise, these nasties have a longer chance to "take root" and do their harm.
Again, as long as I'm exercising once or twice a day, eating right, and getting adequate sleep, I truly, almost never get sick.
On the rare occasions when I do get sick, like last week, I recommend a careful, introspective trial and error process for gauging when and how hard to resume exercising.
In Part 2, I describe my attempts to stave off my emerging illness and how my recovery methodologies played out over the past week.
This week I struggled with a question that I'm sure plagues any of us who are dedicated athletes. Do I work out when I'm sick? And, if I do, how hard do I go? If I don't, how do I I know when I'm well enough to start again?
Like most of us, I want to maintain the positive habit of working out, without missing a beat. I want to continue to make progress. I'm afraid that if I miss one scheduled day, that it's the start of missing many days, the start of back-sliding. At the same time, I don't want to do something that's going to lengthen my illness, and further stand in the way of making progress. What's a person to do?
Most of the discussion on this topic that I've seen in the popular press, over the years, goes something like this: If your symptoms are all above the neck, meaning you have a head cold, go ahead and work out if you want. You may not have a strong workout, but you're not going to do any damage. (This might be particularly useful during a pre-contest phase for a bodybuilder where daily fat loss is vital to preparing for the stage.) On the flip side, this conventional reporting says to avoid exercise if symptoms present below the neck and/or if you're running a fever. Exercising in these cases, it's said will further compromise an already strained immune system, leading to worsened symptoms and an illness of longer duration.
When it comes to getting back into your routine following an illness, there is very little guidance offered, other than, don't resume until you feel well. Hardly a prescription.
My views are a little different from those normally offered and I do have a methodology for determining when and how hard to resume your program as you recover from an illness.
In most cases, at least with the initial onset of an illness, I recommend staying the course, no matter the presenting symptoms. That is, if you're scheduled to exercise, do it.
The reason for this is two-fold. First, all of the things we do to optimize fitness or sports performance also boost the immune system; intense exercise, adequate rest and recuperation, and sound nutrition all lead to a better immune response. If your performance is improving, it can be assumed that all of these components are suitably balanced and that a correlating improvement in the immune system is occurring. If you are not improving, if you are loosing strength or overtrained for example, one of these factors is not optimal and a correlating decline in the immune system can be inferred.
The second reason (not clinically proven, but true to my observations) is the direct effect of exercise on pathogens (germs) trying to exert their influence on your body.
Many times, if I stay the course, and continue to exercise one to three times a day, emerging symptoms will subside after 24 hours and the full-blown illness will never manifest itself. I believe that it's the exercise itself that has this effect.
I hypothesize that daily, even better twice or thrice, daily exercise has a separate immune building benefit in that it raises body core temperature, creating an artificial "fever" that is inhospitable to pathogens. It's not an apple a day that keeps the doctor away; it's daily, intense exercise. In fact, I find that on the few occasions I do get sick, it invariably follows one or two days where I did not exercise at all, and did not benefit from that germ killing "fever."
As well, I believe that intense exercise also serves to enhance and speed the functioning of your digestive, vascular, and lymphatic symptoms, literally flushing pathogens more quickly out of your body. When you don't exercise, these nasties have a longer chance to "take root" and do their harm.
Again, as long as I'm exercising once or twice a day, eating right, and getting adequate sleep, I truly, almost never get sick.
On the rare occasions when I do get sick, like last week, I recommend a careful, introspective trial and error process for gauging when and how hard to resume exercising.
In Part 2, I describe my attempts to stave off my emerging illness and how my recovery methodologies played out over the past week.
No comments:
Post a Comment