I think more than anything I was looking for a good excuse this morning to not exercise. I did a Google search on exercising while you are sick. I shouldn’t have been surprised but there were several articles about this.
I have been feeling under the weather the past few days. My body is run down, my throat hurts and I am sure that bronchitis is making its way into my body. It’s hard enough to get up and take care of the family, home and still do my job. But exercise? I don’t even want to think about it.
However I also know that once I skip a day, or two or more…it becomes much more difficult to get started again.
So what to do?
According to an article I read on Web MD, it depends on your symptoms. The biggest no-no to exercising is if you have a fever. I would think that would be a no-brainer. If I have a fever I am likely not even getting out of bed.
According to one expert, if your symptoms are limited to your neck area and above (sniffles, sore throat, etc.) you should be okay to exercise. However anything below the neck (body aches, coughing, fatigue, etc.) and you should probably avoid it.
It also suggests taking it down a notch. For instance, if running is normally part of your fitness routine, walk instead. Go for less intensive type of exercising.
If you really think about it, it probably comes down to commonsense. You know if your body can be pushed and how far. You also know if you are really sick enough to skip your fitness routine or if you are just looking at it, as I am, as a good excuse to not do it.
So in the end what I have decided to do is get my butt off this chair and fire up my Wii Fitness. Do you exercise when you are sick? And if you don’t, how do you get yourself back on track?
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