Training During Illness

I've been sick with massive congestion, low-grade fevers, etc for about a week now. Having to take the week off from MT is gonna cost me.

How many of you continue to train while sick - not talking about 40C fever and double pnemonia here...bad head colds, etc.

Have you found any cold-killer remedies that actually work - not the 'take half-kilo vitamin C' rubbish - but something that actually works and has a reasonable basis behind it?

 

Fist bump again brother.
Currently nursing an upper respiratory infection myself. *Cough...cough*
Trained last Sunday and then had killer DOMS on Tuesday. Brought about by combining being sick with LOADS of squats. Really over reached myself as I wasn't feeling too bad with just a cough but was evidently weaker than I realised.
Had to spend most of wednesday in bed shivering while simultaneously being all sweaty.

I try to listen to how I feel and if I miss a few days I don't mind. Meant to train tonight but I'm whacked out. No big deal. Get a video and a takeaway in with the missus and make the most of it.

 

Used to train through the pain then learnt more about the body and how the immune system works - now if I'm unwell I rest and let the body heal. Martial Arts training should be for all your life and that life should be a long one...

 

1- rest.
2- rest.
3- good food.
4- more rest.

If all fails, try my grandmother's recipe for colds:
One teaspoon of boiling water + one bowl of rum!


Osu!

 

Not really. I trained when I could while having colds. Flu makes you feel like your dead or dying anyway so training wasn't an issue. Most of the time when I trained with a cold I actually felt better afterwards, the training would loosen congestion and make me breath a bit better.

 

Aye, I'm gonna try that. I've been leavin' off doing anything and haven't felt better ( seem's after the first 12 hours, the more ya sleep the worse ya feel) just massively guilty. I reckon there is that voice that tells you it knows you're really slacking off and looking for an excuse, then.

 

eat extra hearty food when you're sick.
so you dont lose any muscle mass.

 

Problem is...eating extra hearty meals without at least tripling my excercise output results in gains not in muscle mass but fat-mass...

 

lose muscle or gain fat?
your choice mate.
i prefer fat gain

 

I used to train when I wasn't feeling good up until recently when my doctors threaten me with the fact that I would have to go through more surgery if I didn't rest. Taking a day off, a week off or even a year off won't kill you and taking the time to recover is not laziness.

In the case of a cold, I can't see why you can't train. Now if it were the flu that would be a different story. Strangely enough I've found Chamomile tea to be a good remedy (especially with top quality honey and lemon). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamomile

 

It depends on how hard you plan on training. Mild exercise, as Kwaj, elluded to, can actually help due to the release of endorphans and the increase in body temp which equals a good body cleansing sweat. But if you plan on really going at it you're going to take away vital resources you're body needs to fight the infection currently invading your body. Starve a fever, feed a cold is true.

Remember, the body holds limited, finite, resources so choose where you want them to go wisely. A day or two out of class might be worth NOT being sick with a lingering clold for an additional week.

Personally, to answer the question, I shut down when I'm sick. I dont even bother trying to train because I know I wont be 100%. I might do some stretching on my own, just to work up a sweat, but nothing as strenuous as class. I usually miss two classes max and then I'm right back to busting it out.

Regardless of all that, I hope you feel better soon!!!

 

Osu,


Avoiding class will also keep your partners safe from infection...
Hope you get well soon too.


Osu!

 

10 years ago I was training for a San Shou event I had a mild, nagging cold, for 3 weeks. It was annoying more than anything, so I decided to push through it, kept doing an hour of cardio and 45 minutes of weights 3 days a week, kept training and drilling, and then one day I woke up with intense chest pain, vomiting and fever. Because the high levels of exercise were suppressing my immune system the virus had spread and caused the lining of my heart to inflame I never fought full contact again, and I now NEVER train when sick.

 

In addition to what's been said...
My secrets for fast recovery:

1. Take zinc supplement at night on an empty stomach (for increased absorption) to boost your immune system. Zinc lozenges also help with throat problems.
2. Take a couple hundred milligrams of vitamin C every 2 hours. After that it mostly gets flushed out in your urine.
3. Drink lots of water. My general gauge is to make sure I'm drinking enough that urine comes out clear. For me at 165 lbs I intake about 3L a day of water. More than that when you count other fluids.

Training when sick? When mildly sick, there's no fever, and I'm past the contagious phase. Since it's been psychologically proven that learning is state dependent [Goodwin et. al. (1969) and Overton (1968)] for both internal and external environments, for self defense purposes at least, I figure sometimes it's good to train while a little sick, a little intoxicated, or a little hung over because you don't choose when you'l be jumped. Besides I figure your truest memory of the training emerges when there's no influence from the conscious mind such as in states such as sickness and tiredness. Hmm maybe I'll use this for my research proposal.

 

Blind me! I'll keep that one in mind for certain

 

Ya know, that reminds me. I'd a prof at University to tell us once that we should test as how we studied and mentioned that if we were usually intoxicated during our study-halls, we should come to testing plastered to the wall.

Thank you kindly for the zinc recommends, I'm not keen on vitamin C as I'd tried it before and it seemed to hasten colds.

 

Hasn't the Vit C for colds thing been largely debunked these days?
Wasn't it Linus Pauling that brought it to prominence but it's not actually effective at preventing or treating colds?

 

The cold has turned into god-awful bone chills...swimming head and the like. I took some heavy doses of ibuprophen, hence I'm able to sit up and type.

To make a long story short...we bought our house near a year ago...the home inspectors worked for the sales agent ( should've known better) and therefore had no incintives to find any problems - well, there weren't problems except for field rodents who cleverly managed to get into the unfinished portion of our basement and then into the furnace and ductwork... I've been sick ever since I started the massive cleaning and dissinfection job. Never had bone-chills like these.


Thanks for everyones kind replies.

 

Right...I'd heard that as well. Its really hard to say. Take fish-oil supplements for example. They go back and forth. First they claim it helps your heart and then sometime later they'll say it doesn't do a thing for your heart but its MAJIC for your joints...then they'll reverse it.

Having worked in qc laboratories, done testing and so forth, the general pop has no idea how easy it is to get 'official testing' results completely wrong or statistically irrevelant/misleading.