Last Thursday, I was pretty tired most of the day. But Thursday evening, I was just wiped out and ended up going to bed early. When I woke up Friday morning, I was still tired, but now I was also sniffling. I tackled my schedule per normal, but dropped my treadmill routine down to just 30 minutes and kept it light. Even that felt like a battle.
By Friday night, it was a full-blown cold and I was miserable. Head colds, in my opinion, are the worst. I was fatigued, stuffy, coughing, my ears hurt and it felt like my head was wrapped in wool cotton.
Welcome to cold and flu season! Even though January is typically the month that everyone launches their ‘get fit’ resolutions, it’s also the month they run into one of the biggest roadblocks to the success of a resolution: colds and flues. Whether it’s you that gets it or your kids, you know the misery of sleeping poorly, feeling washed out, having trouble breathing and in general being cranky with the world.
It’s a quandary when you are feeling that bad whether you should work out or not. Everyone has an opinion and while exercising will help boost your immune system, working out at your normal high levels when you’re sick is not only not a good idea, it might actually be bad for you.
Exercise drains your body of energy. Yes, it re-energizes you when you’re healthy, but if you’re already fighting an infection or a virus, it drains the necessary resources that your body needs. It can worsen dehydration. If you’re feeling fluish or just under the weather and you really want to do your workout, do a light one. Cut it down by half the time and half the intensity.
If you’re feeling fever, nauseous, vomiting or congestion, you shouldn’t work out at all. You should conserve your energy. Increase your fluid intake, rest and let your body do what it needs to do to rid you of the invaders without sapping its resources.
Listen to your body. Seriously.
I know that one of the drawbacks to this advice is people say “Well, when I want to be lazy, I’m not supposed to do it then.”
There is a difference.
When you want to be lazy, you’re not listening to your body; you’re listening to your mind. Your mind is resisting the idea that you are going to put your body through this and wear yourself out. Your mind is expecting the discomfort. It’s expecting the time investment and it doesn’t want to do it.
When you’re congested and feverish and your body says “let me sleep” or “feed me” or “please just let me lie still.’” Those are the requests you should listen to. Your body is telling you what you need to recover from the illness because it is doing everything it can and it doesn’t have a lot to spell you out.
When you work out regularly with moderate to heavy exercise, you will get sick less often. When you do get sick, you may discover that you recover more rapidly than before or you are not as prone to secondary infections.
Remember, illness gets us when we don’t eat right, stress too much, fail to get a lot of sleep and are exposed to it. When we do get ill, it’s important to slow down, eat correctly, drink plenty of fluids and get plenty of sleep.
So for those of you feeling discouraged if you just started in on your resolution and now you’re sick. Don’t get discouraged. Let your body get well. Getting over illness is fitness too. After that, it is time to get back to the gym, pick up your workouts. Yes, you may need to step it back to 60% of what you were doing when you got sick, but it’s more important that you do get back to it.
Don’t let the cold and flu season defeat you. Once you’re back up to speed, get right back on that treadmill, exercise bike, elliptical or weight machine.
Here is what sports medicine doctors and athletic trainers advised on Rodale Online Health.
Cold symptoms
Exercises to do: Aerobic activity or weightlifting, walking.
Exercises to avoid: If medicating, avoid treadmills and barbell squats. Antihistamines can affect coordination and put you at risk of falling.
Intensity: Some experts suggest reducing time, intensity level or weights lifted by 50 percent to 60 percent at first, increasing to regular levels when they can be tolerated.
Flulike symptoms
Exercises to do: Maybe short walks, if symptoms are mild.
Exercises to avoid: Skip workout if you’re vomiting or have a fever of 100.5 degrees or higher.
Intensity: Low-level, if anything. Rest until you’re better; ease back into routine, allowing several days or up to a week of lighter workouts after symptoms are gone.
Sleep deprivation, jet lag
Exercises to do: Cardio exercises on a bike or stair climber; maybe light weightlifting to invigorate and help reset your internal clock.
Exercises to avoid: Treadmill, heavy weightlifting. Your form may be bad and could cause injury.
Intensity: Reduce speed, intensity by 60 percent at first.