Lisa's tips to deal with sickness

Its almost that time of year, the flu season. Well actually its started with the swine flu hasn't it?!! that came and went pretty quick but I thought I'd talk about training while you're sick, and whether you should do it or not as I'm sure some of you will have to deal with this dilemma in upcoming months.

You know that 'cold' feeling. Your head starts to feel stuffy, your energy levels aren't as good in the gym, you're hardly pushing the weights you did a week ago.

You've been feeling lightheaded getting up from your chair and even walking 10mins is making you feel tired. You think 'uh oh I might be I think I'm coming down with a cold' but you still go to gym and try to train eventhough your head tells you otherwise. 15min into your training you feel very hot and bothered and feeling light headed. That scenario sounds familiar?

I'm wondering how many of you have continued to train even though you know you should rest? Nothing can bring a bodybuilder's progress to a halt more than when you are sick. But for most of us,
its we've been programmed to go to gym and feel if we missed a day or two, we'll get fat or lose
any gains we've made in the gym.

Remember that while training can help us gain muscle, lose fat, feel good and energetic, it is still a catabolic activity. The body needs to be in good health in order to go from the catabolic state caused by the exercise to an anabolic state of recuperation and muscle growth.

So if you have a severe case of the cold ie flu, your body is already fighting a catabolic state caused
by the Influenza virus. In this case, weight training would only add more catabolism, which in turn
would decrease the efficiency of the immune system against the virus, causing you to get sicker.

Therefore, absolutely no training if you have the flu. Instead, concentrate on very good nutrition
and on drinking large amounts of fluids. Once the flu completely runs its course, you can slowly
start up back on your weight training program with lighter weights and not going to failure.
Don't push yourself too hard during this first week. The next week you'll repeat what you
did on the previous week again, but pushing yourself closer to muscular failure. By the third week
of your programme you should be back on track.

If you're suffering from a minor set back of a common cold (you know that it is mild when your symptoms are just a runny nose and slight coughing), you may get away with training. However I recommend you just stop rather try to push things. But if you absolutely cannot tear yourself away from the gym then you might want to train lighter by decreasing your weights by 25 percent (divide the weights that you usually use by 4 and that will give you the amount of weight that you need to take off the bar) in order to prevent you from pushing too hard.

Take it eay with the cardio. I couldn't just sit at home and do nothing, so a 20min walk in the fresh air was plenty to feel like I've done some exercise. If you really are sick then you shouldn't try and do any hard out cardio as this will only do your body worse.

Again, if the cold virus is causing you to feel run down, achy, with a sore throat and headaches, it would be best to stop training all together, until the symptoms subside. If this is the case, just follow the exercise program start-up recommendations described above for after the flu. Remember that we do not want to make it any harder for the immune system to fight the virus by introducing more catabolic activity, so intense training is out during that time.

Now that we have seen how a flu or a cold can throw a wrench into your progress, lets see how we can prevent them from affecting us during the flu season or during any other season for that matter.

Avoid overtraining. Work within your energy levels and don't try to do too much
that isn't in your programme.

Rug up if you go outdoors. If you do most of your cardio outside, make sure you wear a warm
wooly hat, gloves and scarf.

Maintain a balanced diet. Eat good clean healthy food and avoid processed foods that contain
high levels of saturated fats, refined flours or sugar since these types of foods lower the
immune system function.

Keep up your supplements. Take Vitamin C and L-Glutamine to speed up recovery

Get a healthy dose of sleep a day (anywhere from 7 to 9 hours depending on your individual requirements).

So remember, stay healthy by following the tips above, and if you get sick, then "don't"

Rest until you get better! If you don't you will end up more seriously ill and this will take you out of the gym for a longer period of time.

Lisa, Go Figure
7 May 09

Lisa's tips to deal with sickness

Go on facebook!