How to exercise if you have a cold

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Sports activities during illness can be an additional burden for the body. But sometimes mild to moderate activity can help you feel better.

Exercise or relax

To correctly assess your condition, use the "above the neck" rule. If the symptoms are above the neck (sneezing, runny nose, sore throat), light to moderate exertion will not be harmful. If the symptoms have descended below the neck, it is better to rest. Let the body cope with the threat itself.

The American Council on Exercise, which trains and certifies fitness instructors, advises. Stop exercising if you cough, feel tired, muscle pain, or swollen lymph nodes. In addition, it is worth refraining from physical activity for the next two weeks after recovery.

Exercise can be an additional burden for an already stressful state of the body. But in some cases, mild to moderate activity can help you feel better.

Richard Besser M. D. and editor-in-chief of health and medical articles on ABC News.

It turns out that exercising for colds can even help. The main thing is not to overdo it with the load.

Choose the right load

Intense training increases cortisol and adrenaline and lowers immunity. Therefore, for the duration of the illness, it is worth giving up intensive loads. Exercise should be light to moderate and familiar to the body.

Study., conducted at Ball State University in Muncie, proved that moderate and light exercise does not affect the duration and severity of diseases caused by rhinovirus infection (the causative agent of acute respiratory infections).

The study, led by Thomas G. Weidner, involved 50 student volunteers. Participants were infected with rhinovirus and divided into two groups. During the illness, one group did physical exercise and the other did not.

Participants in the first group cycled at a moderate pace, pedaled on a fan stationary bike, jogged on a treadmill, or climbed stairs. They did the exercises every day for 40 minutes at an average intensity so that the heart rate did not exceed 70% of the maximum.

Every 12 hours, the participants filled out questionnaires and answered 13 questions about their condition. After 10 days of the experiment, it turned out that the duration and severity of the course of a cold in the two groups did not differ. However, participants who did physical activity while sick felt better after exercising.

The researchers concluded that moderate cardiac exercise in acute respiratory infections does not prevent the body from coping with the infection.

This is good news for sports fans who do not want to take a break from their training under any circumstances.

So what can and can not be done during a cold?

Good exercise options for colds

The workouts listed below can improve your post-workout well-being without interfering with your body's ability to fight infection.

Walking

While walking, you will not expend a lot of energy, which is so necessary for the body to recover. At the same time, you will reap the benefits of being physically active.

Walking in the fresh air improves the well-being with a cold. While walking, you breathe deeper, which is useful for nasal congestion, and the fresh, humid air of the street (but not frosty) has a beneficial effect on dry nasal mucosa, making breathing easier.

Light jogging and other cardio workouts

If running for you is a familiar part of life, then there is no reason to give up because of a cold.

Jogging patients say running helps them feel better when they are sick. Running is a natural decongestant that can help clear your head and feel good again.

Andrea Hulse Osteopathic Physician and Family Doctor from Silver Spring

Also during the study. Scientists have found that aerobic exercise directly affects immunity and the number of colds. People who do cardio exercises five days a week get sick 46% less often than those who do not exercise at all.

Moreover, people who exercised five or more times a week were sick 41% fewer days than those who did not exercise at all, and 34% less than people who exercised less frequently. It turns out that regular aerobic exercise allows you not only to get sick less often, but also to recover faster.

Qigong

Another good option for practicing during a cold is qigong - slow, concentrated movements, a cross between martial arts and meditation.

For thousands of years, these exercises have been used to relieve anxiety, improve blood pressure, and increase energy. Some modern research shows that qigong has a positive effect on immunity.

During the study., conducted in 2011 at the University of Virginia, found that university swimmers who practice qigong at least once a week were 70% less likely to get colds.

Yoga

Relaxing breathing practices and exercises can help reduce cortisol and help your immune system. Additionally, gentle stretching can relieve muscle pain associated with a cold. Opt for slow yoga styles such as Hatha Yoga or Iyengar Yoga.

If you start doing yoga during a cold, do not quit after recovery. Perhaps next time it will save you from illness.

As part of the study. Scientists have found that in professional yogis, inflammation in response to stress occurs much less frequently.

The study involved 50 healthy women between 30 and 65 years old, half of whom are experienced yogis and the other half are beginners. Scientists found that experienced yogis, regardless of age, weight and cardio fitness, had 41% lower interleukin 6 levels than beginners.

In addition, beginners were almost five times more likely to find C-reactive protein (a marker of active inflammation) than yoga experts.

What is not suitable for exercising during a cold

Long endurance run

Regular, moderate exercise boosts immunity, and constant, serious exercise lowers it. Therefore, you should not overcome marathon distances if you feel the first symptoms of a cold.

While there is no research on how endurance running affects the common cold, the effect of long runs on immunity has been proven. A 2007 study published in the Journal of Applied Sciences proved. that after prolonged training (from 1, 5 hours or more), the immune system can remain depressed for 24 hours.

Exercise equipment in the gym

Besides how you do it, where you do it is also important. When you work out on machines in the gym, you leave bacteria on them that can infect other people.

Would you like to be on a treadmill or an ellipse after someone who constantly sneezes, blows his nose and coughs? Unlikely. Do others a favor and study at home.

Power training

During a cold, anabolic processes in the body are suppressed, and catabolic ones are activated. As your body fights infection, cortisol rises, which negatively affects muscle growth.

If you decide to do some strength training for yourself, you will not get any benefit from it. What's more, confusing a cold with an onset flu and doing strength training can be bad for your heart. Influenza can cause myocarditis, an inflammation of the muscle lining of the heart. Since strength training is an additional burden on the heart, if you suspect influenza, you should stop exercising with heavy weights.

Personal experience

As for personal training experience during colds, it happened to me in different ways. Once, when I came to the gym with the first signs of illness, I didn’t even finish interval training. After that, I had to interrupt classes for about a week, until all the symptoms of a cold were gone.

Another time, with a runny nose and the foggy state that usually occurs with a cold, the workout went well. I did not notice any negative consequences. I think it's all about the infection and the state of immunity at the time of the illness.

By the way, my workouts are functional training with small free weights (35-50 kg) and with my own weight (push-ups, pull-ups), which fits well into the concept of moderate load.

Do not forget about the rule "above the neck", do only light and moderate loads and be sure to monitor your condition. If during training you feel bad, you should not continue it. Better to rest and recuperate, and sports will wait.