Should You Exercise When You’re Sick?

Debating on exercising while being sick?

The rule for working out while sick is called the “neck-up” rule. Moderate exercise gets the green light if symptoms are confined to the head, such as sneezing, headaches, and watery eyes.

But be careful, intense exercise has been shown to lower your immune system for up to 30 minutes after your workout. This leaves a window of opportunity for you to get worse since your body is focused more on returning blood to vital organs and repairing muscles. Take it easy while exercising and only put in about 50% of your maximum effort. You might be feeling ok to give it your all but your body needs as much energy to fight off whatever you have.

Take a short walk or bike ride but I would avoid the gym… bacteria thrive off sweaty environments!

If your symptoms are from the neck down, skip the workout. Once an illness invades the chest and lungs such as fever, nausea, coughing, stomach cramps, or muscles aches you need that rest to allow your body to rest. Working out in these conditions can cause further damage to your health such as pneumonia, bronchitis, or other serious illnesses. Not to mention you are putting yourself at risk for injury from lack of energy and strength.

Needless to say, pay attention to your body. You are better off taking a break for a few days to recover than taking a whole month off because you didn’t stop to listen.

Listen to your body… it’s trying to tell you something!

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Tagged as: Diet, Exercise, Fitness, Health, Illness, Sick, Weight loss, Weight Watchers, Workout