Working Out While Ill? Wed, Apr 6

Training Through Illness

Our clients ask this question a lot: should we train when we’re sick? Our answer is almost always no. First, colds and the like are spread incredibly easily in the gym environment and we don’t need our clientele constantly infecting each other (or us).

Second, there are cases in which training while sick can create some serious problems, such as with the heart – this isn’t something we want to mess with, especially when it’s unnecessary.

Finally, most of us are overworked, underslept, overtrained and overstressed. When we get sick. the last thing that’s going to be helpful is forcing ourselves through tough training. 90% of the time, you’re better off staying out of the gym and resting. When I say resting, I don’t mean wasting time on facebook or watching TV – I mean sleeping or simulating sleep. 30 minutes lying down in silence with your eyes closed, whether you actually fall asleep or not, is a lot more beneficial than a few hours of screwing around on the internet.

This doesn’t mean that if you have a little sniffle you shouldn’t be training – don’t be a diaper baby about it. But be smart and recognize when you’re legitimately sick and need to rest. When you return to training, pay attention to how you’re feeling while you train – if as you’re training you feel fine or even start feeling better, you’re fine. If you start crashing, stop and go rest. Likewise, if after your first training session back you feel worse, you jumped the gun. Go rest some more.

You can try to make up at least some of the missed training when viable, but don’t try to cram 4 days of training into a single session. Figure out what the most important things are from the days you missed and skip the rest – it won’t kill you.

WOD: “Cindy!” AMRAP in 20 minutes
5 pull ups
10 push ups
15 squats

One more for the board gals. Let’s do it!