Lifting when sick?

I've had a cold these past three days, and instead of doing my RFFL workout yesterday as planned I waited until today, but wasn't really near perfect health when I did it - bit of a sore throat, clogged nose, but nothing more.

Just wondering, do you guys lift when down with something? Melkor, maybe you have some magic resources to pull out of your sleeve on this topic?

Well, not magic as such but the dividing line for the rule of thumb is your neck - if you've got sniffles and a dripping nose but nothig more you're okay, if there's any effect lower down you're not. A sore throat's probably okay, a chest cold and coughing isn't, in other words.

 I suspect it's mostly a question of how much of your bodys' immune system gets compromised and depressed by your workouts - something like RFFL has a lot more impact than a light walk on the treadmill, for example ;)

Funny you should ask - I've been sick this week. Conveniently, it's the same week I'm tapering before a game, so the decision to rest is a no-brainer.

I ran a 10K once when I had a terrible cold. I was miserable but finished with an excellent (for me) time. This week I'm going to skate in my game as long as my symptoms are above the neck, but I'm taking it real easy with practices & lifting.

I skip workouts if I'm sick enough that I feel tired or sluggish, because that's a sign that my body is working overtime. The last thing I need is for my body to have muscle repair on its to-do list at the same time it's fighting off an infection.

i agree with loxosceles. how does your body feel, energy levels, etc feel?

Melkor,

Could you expand on that below the neck vs above the neck rule?  I've had a chest cold (bad cough) that started sometime last tues even though I started to feel run down a few days before that, but attributed it to the hard work-out on Sunday.  It's now a "productive cough" and I'm feeling mostly better.  I've been looking around on the internet trying to find some information on if I should work out or not and that neck rule keeps coming up, but none of the reasons why.

My plan is to hit the weight room today for a light workout and gauge it as I go.  Is there a compelling arguement not too because I have a cough?

Frankly I can't stand that it's been 10 days since I worked out last.

Exercise is initself a stressor on your immune system and depresses the function of it for some time.

So it's a combination of inhibition of your airways and the size of the infection/load on your immune system, I'm thinking - if it's above the neck only, the stress on your immune system is small enough that it can handle both it and a workout, if it's below the neck you're in danger of overstraining your already-compromised immune system. The overload would allow other opportunistic infections to get a toehold, and make you sicker as a result.

 Just a guess mind you, I haven't seen anyone clearly formulate a "reason why" experience suggests that dividing line.

That makes some sense, although I've had head colds where my whole body aches too.  I wasn't getting that whole body ache with this one.

I wound up going and doing a lighter workout.  I planned on doing 3 x 5 rather than a 5x5 routine, but by starting out lighter than usual, I found myself able to go 4 x 5.  For example, I typically stretch out with some light weight on bench and do 185 x 5 followed by four sets of 205 x 5.  Yesterday I went 135x5, 185x5 then just 2 sets of 205 (x5 & x4).  Still supersetted everything but also went a bit slower so power (work/time) was lower. 

Superset 1: planks on ball, bench, row, deadlift: 60-90 s rest between sets

superset 2: Squats and pullups: 60 sec rest between sets

misc: hanging leg raises

I feel better psychologically and about the same physically. 

I'm sick this week too! Drats to this weather. I lifted anyway, but kept it light.

I swear you guys gave me your cooties in this thread.

I read this the other day and now I'M trying to get sick.

I'm gonna have to disinfect my monitor or something.  Ugh.

This is nuts, I've had this cough for 3 weeks, hadn't been able to work out since that last post (10/2) and my wife convinced me to see the doctor on Monday (10/13).  He diagnosed me with walking pneumonia and gave me antibiotics.  I guess the point here is that I had something that felt like a slight chest cold and then it kept getting worse.  Young, healthy adults look out for this.  I probably should have followed the above / below the neck advice from Melkor above.

Not sure the lifting made the cough worse though since that is one way they say you can recognize walking pneumonia over a common cold - it will get worse over 2 weeks. 

http://lungdiseases.about.com/od/pneumon2/a/w alkingpneum.htm

Has anyone else had this before, if so how long did it take you to come back in the gym?  It sucks.  I've been trying to keep my protein levels high, but I can't even do simple body weight exercises since it makes me lose my breath, wheeze and go into coughing fits.

What do you guys do to stay sane when sick and can't work-out besides read t-nation? 

The good news is that I was able to get a flu shot & physical during my appt.  My doctor also commented that he hadn't seen anyone come in under 120/80 (I was 110/65) with their blood pressure in a long time.  I'm not too surprised in Western, NY capital of the "Buffalo wings".

oh, you said BESIDES read t-nation?  i'm no help then.  :)

i do hope you feel better soon.  it's hard to suggest any exercise at all right now, bec you're probably all woozy and everything (so i can't even say do balance work or stretches or yoga).  perhaps you can focus on getting enough vitamins to get you healthy again.

Original Post by ds1973:

Has anyone else had this before, if so how long did it take you to come back in the gym?  It sucks.  I've been trying to keep my protein levels high, but I can't even do simple body weight exercises since it makes me lose my breath, wheeze and go into coughing fits.

What do you guys do to stay sane when sick and can't work-out besides read t-nation? 

Pneumonia's nothing to fool with, walking or otherwise.  4-6 weeks is not uncommon for recovery time, and I've seen people that have had it hang on for two months, with a recurring cough (even after they're healed) that's stuck around for even longer.  Once you've had it, you'll be more prone to get it again too.  Nothing but good news, right?  Sorry.  Take your time and fight it off.  You'll make it last longer if you overtax yourself, and even healthy folks can wind up in the hospital if it worsens.

I don't know about staying sane (I'm not even sure what that word MEANS), but when I'm sick I'm in absolutely no mood to lift anyway.  I generally sleep as much as possible, naps even, catch up on all the stuff clogging my TiVO, mess around on the puter, and make sure I'm eating enough to fuel the battle against the bug going on in there.  If that doesn't fill the void, grab one of Tom Clancy's books.  Now that Stephen King's slowed down so much, I've been going back and reading all Clancy's stuff.  They're real barn burners, I can't put 'em down.