Do you train when you are sick?

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I find it incredibly difficult to do anything when sick (even a slight cold) due to chronic and difficult asthma. I get far less sleep when I'm ill, get wheezy during exercise and cough a lot. 

But it's training that's helped me most. I went down with vomiting  (and now my asthma's been really aggravated - now a painful chesty cough and wheeze) last week but it's been the first time I've been ill in a long time. And I'm still only in my teens, I have time to "grow out of it".

I try to constantly limber and move when I'm ill though, and avoid sitting around feeling sorry for myself 

Arto Ratilainen said:

No, my doctor didn't recommend it. Some bodybuilders recommended back when I was training with free weights. I remember Mentula being one of the proponents of it. I have no idea what those links are saying, but in my experience it does work.

Your doctor didn't recommend it, yet you're taking it anyway... nice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo

gravy said:

Your doctor didn't recommend it, yet you're taking it anyway... nice.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo

Individuals have the right to make their own choices with their bodies.  Most doctors also have little training when it comes to nutrition.  Someone taking vitamin C without a doctor's recommendation is nothing extreme.

Placebo or not, if something works use it.

I remember Robb Wolf saying something along the lines of not taking vitamin C around exercise time. Can't remember why though. It's on one of the most recent podcasts.

kyle said:

Individuals have the right to make their own choices with their bodies.  Most doctors also have little training when it comes to nutrition.  Someone taking vitamin C without a doctor's recommendation is nothing extreme.

 

Placebo or not, if something works use it.

I'll keep taking my anabolic steroids then.

I'll keep taking my anabolic steroids then.

That's what I'm talking about!

Back to a serious note, I tend to jack diddly squat when sick. I'll try to do some activity, maybe a light workout not very intense.

Generally though I ignore just about everything and dive into bed as much as possible. Sleep and when not sleeping, laying down reading and napping or closing my eyes. Eat everything I can that is healthy especially when I start noticing my desire to eat dwindles down to the point that I just want to sleep.

However, I tend to have a job most of the time so being in bed isn't always an option except on days off.

So I:

Drink a lot of tea.

Suck on a lot of honey lemon cough drops. Make sure they are the ones with menthol. It helps with the pain of a headache but I have and my gymnasts been concerned about menthol addiction. I do know they act as an ophoid. I literally will be miserable without them and once I pop them in I start feeling better. Not sure if it's a mental thing or the fact they make me feel so much better.

Sometimes make and drink hottie totties. Lemon, honey, booze (whiskey). Shots of vodka or tequila work well and a full shot isn't necessary. It's just to get that warm feeling as you lay down and close your eyes. Irish Mist is basically honey whiskey mead so I keep a bottle of it around for when I'm sick (and want to drink liquor).

If you do want to train while sick, I surely wouldn't go full bore. 

I don't recommend training while sick. Your body needs rest, and the faster you recover from the sickness, the faster you can get back to proper training. 

This is getting way off topic!

3D Guy said:

just wok light, very light things, do mobility work, stretching and that's all!!

- Very good advice; this is what I do with my own athletes.  Unless they are very sick, and or contagious, they do not take time off; rather I scale the workout as far back as needed to achieve a very light rate of perceived exertion.

- It also depends upon what your own personal perception of "sick" is.  

I have some athletes who, often while crawling across the floor coughing and hacking, will always claim that they are fine.  I have others who emotionally need a day off if they feel a hangnail coming on.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

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