Working out while sick. Good thing or bad thing?

On our road to greater fitness and health sometimes we become hard-core in our training philosophy. We don’t miss a day, utilize every opportunity to bring fitness into our lives and get stressed whenever anything gets in the way of us doing our daily workout.

But even the fittest of us are going to get sick once in a while. Thank goodness that the fitter and healthier we get the less downtime from a sickness we realize.

But, the golden rule of exercising while your sick is pretty straight forward. If you only have mild symptoms and you generally fill good then exercising while sick will actually boost your immune system and help you fight off your ills. But if you are felling pretty bad then exercising will weaken your immune system and make your illness possibly last longer.

But for some of us, we get scared that maybe we will lose all those results that we have gained while we take a few days or week off. Take solace, it is actually a GOOD thing to skip a week every now and then as long as you exercise regularly. In fact it is actually a GREAT thing to reach your maximum potential.

In my personal training business I usually give my clients off a week for every three months they work with me (depending on hard I have been working them). Not only do they see it as a reward for their progress but it also makes them stronger and fitter by resting their muscles and allowing their bodies a full recovery week to reach their potential. There is proven science behind the rest a week every now and then.

Some of my clients are ultra hard-core and will never take off no matter what I say to them. For them I do a high repetition and easy workout. We move the muscles in a less stressed way and work on proper technique for the week instead. They still receive most of the benefits and their body recovers nicely for it.

So my expert advice to you is if you are sick and need to take off for a week – do it. Your body may just surprise you and be even stronger when you return.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT
Perfect You LLC