Shut it down and get some rest, Amel. It will help you get well
sooner and it might end up improving your results in the long term.
When you're sick, your body uses its recovery properties to fight the
illness. When you exercise, you use these same properties to recover.
To your body, trying to exercise when you're sick is effectively the
same thing as overtraining. You won't be able to recover from exercise,
rendering it useless, as well as increasing the risk of making your
illness worse and lengthening your downtime.
Believe it or not, there are actually a couple of upsides to being
sick. It both raises your metabolism and heightens your immune response,
meaning that you can eat more than normal and not gain weight. Your
immune system also releases performance-enhancing hormones that both
fight the infection and help you heal microtrauma incurred during your training program. Because of these factors, when I'm sick during a training cycle I consider it my recovery week. Here is my protocol:
At the onset of symptoms I bump my vitamin C and zinc levels, drink a
ton of water, and sleep as much as possible. If I catch it early
enough, I'll miss the cold. However, your body plays an insidious trick
on you at the onset of a cold. Before you feel symptoms, your adrenal
system kick-starts the immune response, which often results in a great
workout—too good. Prior to a competition, if an athlete sets a personal record
or looks too strong, their coach will often shut them down in
anticipation of potential pending illness. If a workout feels
spectacular out of the blue, consider backing off and adding
immune-boosting supplements to your regimen.
Once I know I'm sick, I rest as much as I possibly can. I clear my
social schedule, work as little as possible, and shelve any projects
(even mental ones) that can wait. My diet becomes very clean. No coffee,
alcohol, sugar, junk, and I drink a ton of water. Also, I eat a lot of
small meals all day long. Your body needs nutrients when it's sick but
doesn't want the energy burden of digesting large meals.
When
the cold has turned the corner I begin moving more. I'll do low-level
aerobic exercise and light yoga—restorative exercise. I'll build this
gradually as I feel better, so that when the symptoms are gone I can hit
it hard, right where I left off. When I follow my protocol strictly it
will actually aid my fitness program in the long run.
Finally, there are times when you're sick when hard exercise might
help, but it's rare. The most common is near the end of a cold, where
the infection has run its course but you still have minor symptoms. You
might have heard someone say, "I blew the cold out of my system" with
exercise. Just be careful you don't try this too early or you'll get
worse. Patience may not be your favorite part of training, but sometimes
you gotta not do what you gotta not do.