strength and illnesses . . . working out when sick

[alfresco]

Another members post (hardcore or rest) got me thinking about this.

I seem to have a propensity for the common cold, it being the only real
illness I have ever been troubled with, knock on wood. For some reason,
colds knock me for a loop, I really suffer (though not as frequently or
a badly now that I am on TRT), having no real alternative other than to
wait it out. And you know what they say about a cold, . . . if you do
nothing it will last a week, if you take all the meds it will last about seven
days, and if you abuse yourself, it will last about half a fortnight.

I have said this here before, I have always keep what I consider to
be very accurate records of all my workouts. One consistent observation
is that whenever I have been sick; a cold, the flu, (nothing debilitating),
and thinking about working out or not working; if I just manage to drag
myself to the gym, I just about always am stronger, have a better than
average work, and sometimes even a spectacular workout. I have seen
this demonstrated by some of my training partners as well.

I have a theory about this. I think that when your body is trying to fend
something off, it releases more hormones, or something in it's defense.
And it is these "things" that are responsible for the strength increase and
the better than average workout (in most cases).

Has anybody else ever experienced this?

Here is interesting story along a similar vein, about what the body is capable
of. A few years ago, a friend and I went on our annual cross-country back-
packing trip in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. As we headed
up the trail, I felt the beginnings of what I knew to be a terrible cold. I said to
myself, this is going to be a horrible week; 10 - 12 hours a day of hard
physical labor, under a load, at altitude, and with a cold. By mid-day we
were off trail, boulder hopping and route finding, and soon ourselves standing
at the top of a pass, looking down at a pair of beautiful lakes that were not
supposed to be there. As Daniel Boone once said when asked if he had ever
been lost " . . . no, but I was once bewildered for a few days."

Now I really felt bad, felt like absolute crap. This cold was going to be a
winner. So we backtracked, then headed more north to the now correct pass
only to find the opposite side hip deep in snow. Unprepared for that amount
of snow so late in the season, and it being late in the day by now, and with
ominous clouds moving in, we decided to lose a little altitude, regroup, and
go to Plan B. Problem was, we had no Plan B.

Soon, very soon, the weather really stared to consolidate, bringing freezing
rain and wind. We hustled to find a protected area, pulled out my friends
tarp, only to find that the surfaces of the tarp had stuck to itself after being
in storage. Vigorously pulling it open, it began to delaminate, separating the
protective coating from the nylon tarp. Not good.

But, what was good I noticed, is that I had no cold. All symptoms had dis-
sappeared. Vanished. Gone. No where to be found. I felt great once again.

After spending a sleepless night, rain soaked, under a leaky tarp, we
headed out early the next morning to try to find another way over or around
the pass. This second attempt failed for a variety of reasons, and we were
forced by weather once again to put up the leaky tarp. Another long, wet,
cold night.

But, I still felt great.

We headed back down to the trailhead the next morning, our tails between
our legs, dropping about a 6,000' in the process. On the way down the cold
that I thought I had avoided, beaten into submission, was slowly rearing
it's ugly head. By the time we arrived back at our car late that afternoon, there
was no mistaking it's arrival. After showering at the local swimming pool, we
headed out into the high desert to camp for the night under clear skies before
the long drive back home. That night was one of the longest nights of my life.
My cold, the sore throat, etc., was back in full force.

My point being . . .

I think what happened, and the reason I am telling this story, is that when
your body is under a large amount of stress, be it due to sickness, or extended
hard physical exertion (like I had just been through) your body releases chemicals
hormones, a wide variety of things when it is in a survival mode. So, my body
effectively but my cold on "hold" because it had more important things it had to do.

So when I have worked with weights out when I was sick, (again, I'm not
talking about terminally ill or a deliberating illness), a side effect of my sickness
was my bodies natural defense mechanism being activated, releasing whatever
naturally occurring substances it had available deal with it, to survive. And in
my case, it made me stronger and I was able to demonstrate that in the gym.

Just my opinion. I am not advocating training when sick, just wanted to
through out my experiences and observations.

 

[btech]

I saw the title of this thread and instantly thought, "No, you should rest."

Then, I read your post, and now I have no comment.

 

[MattyFSU]

i can share.....

the only time of year i get really sick where i may miss a day or two of work is around the winter time. i live here in florida so we really dont have a winter till mid to late january. my problem always comes from my sinuses. when there is a drastic change of temp( from like 80 during the day to like 42 at night) ......boom i get sick!!!

so it normally starts with stuffy nose, sinus pressure, and then leads to upper resp. infection. well this one in particular year about 2 years ago this one lasted abt 7 days!!!! i hadnt been to the gym during that time because i just thought that i would feel better the next day, boy was i wrong. it lasted 7 days and by the 7th day i said screw it time to go to the gym. so i went. after warming up on the treadmill for about 15 mins i started to train back that night and it was by far THE best and strongest i have ever hit back!!!! it was like i was never sick.....no more runny nose, no more sinus pressure it was amazing!!!

by the time i got home and took a shower and ate my last meal for the day it all came back with so much force, esp the sinus pressure, i went to the doctor the next morning to get some relief.

i dont train to often when im sick because A. im really never sick and B. i dont want it to smack me in the face like that again!!!

but i do aggre with alfresco it was if my body had to put my illness to the side while i was going thru kicking my ass in the gym. and as soon as i was done.....wham it came back hard!!!

just my story....

 

[BigCracker]

O/T, I haven't had a cold or the flu in almost 6 years. Maybe I train like a puss?

 

[skulbone]

Don't train if you can't go to work. Or thats my motto.

 

[blackhole]

Another members post (hardcore or rest) got me thinking about this.

I seem to have a propensity for the common cold, it being the only real
illness I have ever been troubled with, knock on wood. For some reason,
colds knock me for a loop, I really suffer (though not as frequently or
a badly now that I am on TRT), having no real alternative other than to
wait it out. And you know what they say about a cold, . . . if you do
nothing it will last a week, if you take all the meds it will last about seven
days, and if you abuse yourself, it will last about half a fortnight.

I have said this here before, I have always keep what I consider to
be very accurate records of all my workouts. One consistent observation
is that whenever I have been sick; a cold, the flu, (nothing debilitating),
and thinking about working out or not working; if I just manage to drag
myself to the gym, I just about always am stronger, have a better than
average work, and sometimes even a spectacular workout. I have seen
this demonstrated by some of my training partners as well.

I have a theory about this. I think that when your body is trying to fend
something off, it releases more hormones, or something in it's defense.
And it is these "things" that are responsible for the strength increase and
the better than average workout (in most cases).

Has anybody else ever experienced this?

Here is interesting story along a similar vein, about what the body is capable
of. A few years ago, a friend and I went on our annual cross-country back-
packing trip in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. As we headed
up the trail, I felt the beginnings of what I knew to be a terrible cold. I said to
myself, this is going to be a horrible week; 10 - 12 hours a day of hard
physical labor, under a load, at altitude, and with a cold. By mid-day we
were off trail, boulder hopping and route finding, and soon ourselves standing
at the top of a pass, looking down at a pair of beautiful lakes that were not
supposed to be there. As Daniel Boone once said when asked if he had ever
been lost " . . . no, but I was once bewildered for a few days."

Now I really felt bad, felt like absolute crap. This cold was going to be a
winner. So we backtracked, then headed more north to the now correct pass
only to find the opposite side hip deep in snow. Unprepared for that amount
of snow so late in the season, and it being late in the day by now, and with
ominous clouds moving in, we decided to lose a little altitude, regroup, and
go to Plan B. Problem was, we had no Plan B.

Soon, very soon, the weather really stared to consolidate, bringing freezing
rain and wind. We hustled to find a protected area, pulled out my friends
tarp, only to find that the surfaces of the tarp had stuck to itself after being
in storage. Vigorously pulling it open, it began to delaminate, separating the
protective coating from the nylon tarp. Not good.

But, what was good I noticed, is that I had no cold. All symptoms had dis-
sappeared. Vanished. Gone. No where to be found. I felt great once again.

After spending a sleepless night, rain soaked, under a leaky tarp, we
headed out early the next morning to try to find another way over or around
the pass. This second attempt failed for a variety of reasons, and we were
forced by weather once again to put up the leaky tarp. Another long, wet,
cold night.

But, I still felt great.

We headed back down to the trailhead the next morning, our tails between
our legs, dropping about a 6,000' in the process. On the way down the cold
that I thought I had avoided, beaten into submission, was slowly rearing
it's ugly head. By the time we arrived back at our car late that afternoon, there
was no mistaking it's arrival. After showering at the local swimming pool, we
headed out into the high desert to camp for the night under clear skies before
the long drive back home. That night was one of the longest nights of my life.
My cold, the sore throat, etc., was back in full force.

My point being . . .

I think what happened, and the reason I am telling this story, is that when
your body is under a large amount of stress, be it due to sickness, or extended
hard physical exertion (like I had just been through) your body releases chemicals
hormones, a wide variety of things when it is in a survival mode. So, my body
effectively but my cold on "hold" because it had more important things it had to do.

So when I have worked with weights out when I was sick, (again, I'm not
talking about terminally ill or a deliberating illness), a side effect of my sickness
was my bodies natural defense mechanism being activated, releasing whatever
naturally occurring substances it had available deal with it, to survive. And in
my case, it made me stronger and I was able to demonstrate that in the gym.

Just my opinion. I am not advocating training when sick, just wanted to
through out my experiences and observations.

dude thats so weird, ever since i was a teenager, i specifically noticed the identical thing. whenever i had a cold i would have to drag myself to the gym. without exception, EVERY time i had a cold i was noticably stronger. i wonder what causes this?

 

[Wynn]

I remembered this thread when I saw the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/25/health/nutrition/25best.html?_r=1&th&emc=th



Don’t Starve a Cold of Exercise
By GINA KOLATA

YOU have what seems to be a really bad cold. You are coughing and sneezing, and it is hard to breathe.

Should you work out?

And if you do, should you push yourself as hard as ever or take it easy? Will exercise have no effect, or make you feel better or worse?

It is a question, surprisingly enough, that stumps many exercise physiologists and infectious disease specialists.

“That question has not been actually studied,” said Dr. Aaron E. Glatt, a spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society and the president of New Island Hospital in Bethpage, N.Y.

Many avid exercisers make up their own rules, and it seems that many of them, like Dr. Michael Joyner, an exercise researcher at the Mayo Clinic who is a swimmer and runner, decide to keep exercising if they possibly can.

“I can tell you that unless I am really wiped out, I still work out but maybe scale back a bit,” Dr. Joyner said. “I think that would be the answer from most relatively hard-core, old-school types.

“If I have an obvious fever and muscle aches,” he continued, “I do very little or take a day or two off, but I really have to be in a bad way to skip more than that.”

Dr. Bill Schaffner, chairman of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University and a member of the board of directors of the Infectious Diseases Society, said he was unaware of any studies that addressed the issue.

Dr. Schaffner described himself as a jogger who runs a few miles most days and goes to a gym for resistance training. And, he said, he continues his workouts when he has a cold.

Exercise, he said, makes him feel better. He speculates that perhaps it is because his blood vessels are dilated when he exercises.

“I think exercise pushes me along a route to recovery,” Dr. Schaffner said. “Of course, I recognize that I might have been on a route to recovery anyway. But I can’t think of a reason why exercise would affect you adversely.”

It turns out that, even though they were unaware of them, the strategies of people like Dr. Schaffner and Dr. Joyner are actually supported by two little-known studies that were published a decade ago in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Results from the studies were so much in favor of exercise that the researchers themselves were surprised.

The studies began, said Leonard Kaminsky, an exercise physiologist at Ball State University, when a trainer at the university, Thomas Weidner, wondered what he should tell athletes when they got colds.

The first question was: Does a cold affect your ability to exercise? To address that, the researchers recruited 24 men and 21 women ages 18 to 29 and of varying levels of fitness who agreed to be deliberately infected with a rhinovirus, which is responsible for about a third of all colds. Another group of 10 young men and women served as controls; they were not infected.

At the start of the study, the investigators tested all of the subjects, assessing their lung functions and exercise capacity. Then a cold virus was dropped into the noses of 45 of the subjects, and all caught head colds. Two days later, when their cold symptoms were at their worst, the subjects exercised by running on treadmills at moderate and intense levels. The researchers reported that having a cold had no effect on either lung function or exercise capacity.

“I was surprised their lung function wasn’t impaired,” Dr. Kaminsky said. “I was surprised their overall exercise performance wasn’t impaired, even though they were reporting feeling fatigued.”

He said he also tested the subjects at different points in the exercise sessions, from moderate to intense effort, and found that their colds had no effect on their metabolic responses.

Another question was: Does exercising when you have a cold affect your symptoms and recovery time?

Once again, Dr, Kaminsky and his colleagues infected volunteers with a rhinovirus. This time, the subjects were 34 young men and women who were randomly assigned to a group that would exercise with their colds and 16 others who were assigned to rest.

The group that exercised ran on treadmills for 40 minutes every other day at moderate levels of 70 percent of their maximum heart rates.

Every 12 hours, all the subjects in the study completed questionnaires about their symptoms and physical activity. The researchers collected the subjects’ used facial tissues, weighing them to assess their cold symptoms.

The investigators found no difference in symptoms between the group that exercised and the one that rested. And there was no difference in the time it took to recover from the colds. But when the exercisers assessed their symptoms, Dr. Kaminsky said, “people said they felt O.K. and, in some cases, they actually felt better.”

Now, Dr. Kaminsky said, he and others at Ball State encourage people to exercise when they have colds, at least if they have the type producing symptoms like runny noses and sneezing. He is more cautious about other types of colds that produce fevers or symptoms below the neck such as chest congestion. Exercising with a head cold is not an issue for athletes, Dr. Kaminsky said, because most of them want to train no matter what. “If anything they tend to push too much,” he said.

Dr. Kaminsky also runs a fitness program at the university, dealing with regular exercisers. When he tells them it is all right to exercise when they have a cold, many are “a little suspicious,” he said. Often, they want to back off a little, lowering the intensity of their efforts.

“We tell them that’s O.K. if it’s for a short period of time,” Dr. Kaminsky said. “But what you have to be cautious of, where I see it as more of an issue, is with people who are trying to build that exercise habit. They’ve got all these barriers anyway.”

AND too often taking time off because of a cold is the start of falling away from the program entirely.

Dr. Kaminsky, who runs and works out on elliptical cross trainers and does resistance training, takes the studies’ findings to heart. Now when he has a cold, he continues to work out.

“It did give me the personal assurance that it was a good thing to do,” he said.