The subject is Colds. How it affects training and what do you do to fight one? I have one. It is really bad timing. I have an observation for my TCC with my Sifu this Friday. I am also formatting for my brown sash test. (Formatting is going through the test several times a week- including during my private lesson - until it looks good enough to actually test.) So, how do you deal with colds with regards to your training? I took yesterday off. but I am thinking I will push myself to practice some TCC today because of my observation coming up. I would normally take today off too as I have NO energy. It isn't a terribly bad cold, but I just feel really drained. No fever, but congested and throat is scratchy. Do you push through it, or rest? Some fellow students mentioned putting a drop of Tea Tree oil under my tongue at night to help fight it off. Zinc was also mentioned. And the usual vitamin C. I already take a lot of supplements daily though. I just thought it would be interesting to hear what sort of things people try to fight off colds. What sort of approaches to training are taken while battling sickness. What has worked and what hasn't?
Unless I'm sneezing, coughing or my nose is running everywhere I normally train as usual. Getting choked is an incredibly effective way of clearing up a stuffy nose or a sore throat
Rest. Sleep as much as possible. Trainign is ok as long as you take care of yourself. But don't strain yourself or you'll just lengthen the recovery.
If a training partner gives me his/her cold because they came to training sick, I'll be seeking them out for payback in the very near future. If you're sick, stay away.
Oh, let me clarify. I am talking about solo training only here. I felt it coming on Friday night. I cancelled my two person Pattern Push Hands TCC training that I have set up with a couple of other students because I think I was contagious at that time. Same thing with sparring Saturday. One- I felt too sick to do it. But if I felt up to it, I still would have stayed away to keep my training partners from getting sick. Anytime, but especially just before a big holiday! Practice today would not be at my school anyways. It is closed today. It would be practicing forms in the aerobics room at my local 24 hours fitness center. It is mostly empty. And it has mirrors on 3 sides and a window that acts as a mirror at night on the fourth side. Makes it very useful for evaluating things during forms practice. So, anyone have any cold remedies- folk medicine or other - that they find works for them? I am really just using this situation to pick peoples brains about what they do to minimize the effects of a cold - especially with regards to training. True. But my upcoming evaluation by my Sifu really does matter. It is a step towards preparing me for my final big test in front of our Grandmaster and head of our schools. Idea being that I should have all the basic stuff down so that Sifu can concentrate on fixing the advanced level details. I got a couple of those basics I want to refine this week - so I feel more confident in them.
Ok, solo training is a different thing. I think it's almost always better to take a couple of rest days when you're sick, because whenever I try to push through, it always seems to take me longer to get over the cold. That's anecdotal and I don't know if the evidence bears that out. However, I think it is safe to train with a cold so long as the cold isn't affecting your breathing - ie, the cold hasn't gotten onto your chest. I'd also be wary of training with a fever. Whenever someone starts to get a bit overly serious about what are, let's face it, hobbies, a friend of mine likes to say 'it wont change your life'.
There seems to be a school of thought that if you feel the cold only above the chin then training is OK but once it enters the throat and chest you should take it easy and rest. At the very least, cut down on what you're doing, your body has to work hard enough to fight off the virus without you giving it the extra challenge of coping with a workout. Personally, when I have a cold I take time off training. There was a review paper that came out a few years ago that suggested that taking Echinacea at the first sign of symptoms can reduce the length and severity of the cold. However, it wasn't at a statistically significant level, but the qualifier was that getting statistical significance with cold remedies is very difficult, due to the fact that there are many different viruses and symptoms vary considerably between individuals.
