On the surface this may “seem” like a stupid question, but I won’t let that stop me. I’m not running a fever (that passed a couple of days ago), but I’m still feeling pretty run down and have some coughing and generally a weak sort of feeling. That being said, the last time this came up I waited until I felt like working out and it took nearly two weeks.
I’m not waiting that long this time. Any thoughts on the benefits (or detriments) of just putting in a workout anyway…?
Anyone else workout even if they are sick?
Just curious what the thoughts might be out there.
I never work out when I’m sick anymore, though, everyone definition of sick varies. I realized that I was just impeding progress.
Depending on how sick you, you might just even wanna go light for a while. 2 weeks of qaulity training beats out 3 or 4 weeks of half assed workouts due to weakness. Plus, if you strain yourself too far, youcould compromise your immune system to the point where you’re just back at square you again.
I get depressed if I don’t work out! I play it by ear, as to whether or not I work out when under the weather. Usually means if i do, it’s with a modified workout, not what was originally scheduled for that day. I have felt better and worse when i have worked out sick in the past…I will continue to work out in the future when I am sick. Curious as to how others reply…this was a great question! Feel better soon.
If you have to feel like shit you may as well get something out of it. I go to work sick, it’s better than staying home feeling like shit and not make any money at the same time. I like to do cardio when I’m sick and sweat it out, works good for me, but then I don’t get sick more than once every three or four years.
I think Quartey is right, that it’s better to slow down a bit than risk triggering a real illness. Sometimes, its just a sniffle and I just work through it, but if I feel than my workouts have been a little harder than normal, either because I’ve been pushing too hard or I’ve been a little weaker and I’m not getting the planned reps, then I have to assume that I’m heading for overtraining. Times like that, I skip the workout. I find it too hard to “just take it easy” in the gym.
“On a scale of 0-10, how bad do you feel?
If it’s 0-3, you’re fine.
If it’s 4-5, go in, warm-up, and then see how you feel.
If it’s 6, just go in and do something, even if it’s just a warm-up.
If it’s 7, push things back a day.
If it’s 8-9, take a few days to rest.
If it’s 10, you shouldn’t feel good enough to check emails.”
On the E.C. scale, I’m somewhere between a 4 and a 7, so I’ll start with a warm-up and go from there.
I didn’t want to get in too big of a hurry to be back on track (it’s an ultra-marathon…not a sprint), but I didn’t want to just hang back and get dark and gloomy about it either.