Interesting Perspective

[bodhitree]

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=600264

[Chief Fox]

Very interesting.

He makes some sense. It's worth a try.

So in addition to my zicam, oj, chicken nodle soup, gatorade and sleep solution for colds. Maybe I'll add in a light weight workout too.

Good article, thanks for the link.

[bodhitree]

I just got some zicam after seeing an ad on tv, holy **** I felt a lot better that day(yesterday). Thats some good stuff.

[Ford Prefect]

I really couldn't disagree more with this article. When you're sick, your body is fighting off the illness with all its might. Adding things for your body to recover from will just exascerbate the problem. Entirely healthy people overtrain all the time, which then leads to illness because of a weakened immune system. Do you really want to start with illness first and then add training on top of it? It makes no sense. Now, I can see a case being made for a very light (low intensity - low volume) session in order to keep your circulation going, but anything else is just plain dumb.

bohdi, I use Zicam religiously too. With my training volume and my wife as an elemntary school teacher, I'm open for whatever the flavor of the week is. It always helps. I'm not sure if it's just a placebo effect or not, but I don't care. It works. :)

[Chief Fox]

I've had colds before where at some point I knew that all I had to do was go out for a run and the cold would be gone.

But then there were times, especially when I was training for triathlons (every tiathlete is almost always on the edge of over training) where I go sick from pushing it too much.

So I don't think there is a cut a dry rule, yes you train when you're sick or no you don't.

Basically, if I feel like dog cr@p I don't do anything. But if I'm not sure if I should work out or not, I'll just go light.

This is just me, I know how my body responds to certain things. May not be the best for everyone.

[Ford Prefect]

I agree that there is not cut & dry rule that is correct 100% of the time. Still I would have to say that the general is not to train when you get sick. At the very least, don't train very hard at all. Really only do things to premote circulation. This goes double for if you work out at a commercial gym. If you train while you are sick, you are a selfish SOB who disregards the health of all the other members.

As you pointed out, over training weakens your immuno-response. This is documented via scientific studies. The problem with empirical experience like "I worked out and felt better the next day" is that you really have no idea what it was that made you feel better. Running is just an arbitrary guess taken out of all the possible things that did it.

It's better to err on the side of caution and recognize a few simple truths: hard training weakens your immuno response; most "training" will require an adaptive response from your body, which will require resources from your body; fighting illness requires immuno-response which requires similar resources from your body...

Just doesn't make much sense to gamble and say that maybe this time you workout will be one of the small percentage of times where doing so won't make the problem worse.

[Chief Fox]

This goes double for if you work out at a commercial gym. If you train while you are sick, you are a selfish SOB who disregards the health of all the other members.
I workout in my basement or my garage but my wife would still say that I'm a selfish SOB. :D



It's better to err on the side of caution
I agree. I'd hate for someone who was sick to read that article and follow the guys advice and end up worse for the wear.

[cjurakpt]

I would agree with Ford: when you train (or do rehab), you are asking the body to learn, in essence; learning requires a level of arousal that when you are sick is not present, because the organism is dealing with something else; of course, it's true that what may constitute a heavy workout for one might be a light workout for another as well, but the principle refers to where you are on that continuum: staying in about the 20% to 30% zone strikes me intuitively as a good ceiling (no references for that, purely "educated" conjecture);

you may also consider some bodywork as an assist: not a heavy duty Rolfing session, but maybe some lymphatic pumping / drainage; even adjustment can be helpful (again, it depends); I would also say that if it was something you never had done first when you were healthy, maybe not try it for the first time when sick...

for me, the thing that works the best is to put on 3 layers of warm sweats, get under the covers, drink a lot of fluids and sweat like a dog; I also consciously decide not to stress out about being sick / missing work, etc; I also allow the reflexive breathing mechanism to take over (that is, don't regulate the breath - just let it do naturally whatever it wants to do) - if I hit it early enough (knowing the early warning signs helps), it's usually gone in a day or 2;

oh, almost forgot - my teacher's "secret" remedy (Hon's Brew):

2 mugs water
1/2 lemon
4-5 slices of ginger (quarter sized)
honey

- put water in pot, squeeze in lemon; throw in lemon and ginger; boil for 5 min; pour into cup; add AS MUCH honey as you like; drink; repeat a few times a day

stuff works like a charm in my personal experience