Changing excersise AND sick....

zoey116

Ok so this last week I started Swimming 3-4 hours a day and strated getting sick about the same time(not due to the swimming, just bad timing). The swimming was part of a class that I HAD to take so i pushed myself and now I feel horrible so now that the class is done I'm going to take off a few days. how long should I take off? till I feel completly better or just a day or 2? also when you change your workout sooooo much how long till you typically start loosing weight? or if your workout is building muscle(making you heavier) how long before that starts to happen? I just would have thought by doing so much more than I had previously I would see a loss but I've gone up a few pounds and I don't know if I'm building muscle or if its from being sick or what?

StiringWendel

As far as working out when you are sick, it depends on the illness. If you have a head cold, you can pretty much workout when you start feeling like you have the energy to workout. But if your illness is in your chest (chest cold) or your stomach, you should let yourself get better before you start working out again.

Regarding your workout routine, I can only speak for myself. I've been working out consistently for years. But whenever I change the strength training portion of my routine, I can generally guess that I will retain water for a good two or three weeks before I start seeing any losses.

As far as building muscle goes, chances are you aren't going to actually build muscle (unless you are eating more calories that you are burning and lifting very heavy). But you will see gains in your strength and, as you lose weight, you will start seeing more muscle definition. With regard to building strength, you shouldn't lift the same weight more than a couple of weeks in a row if you are trying to build strength. A general rule of thumb I've used in the past is to try to up my weight about 5% every two weeks. Don't try to jump up in weights too quickly, but if you continue using the same weight over and over, you won't see any strength gains.

In terms of seeing the exercise results (more muscle in the arms/legs etc), again I can only speak for me personally. But, for me, that is almost entirely dependent on my diet. I need to be at a lower weight and eating as cleanly as possible for me to have much muscle definition.

Hope that helps....and hope you start feeling better soon.

zoey116

I have a sinus/ear/chest infection. :frown: As far as excersise Ive been doing cardio. I started out bike riding occasionally and now I'm going to be swimming as often as possible but at leaste 3x a week. I'm going to try to go on Maintenance for a week and then drop my calories back down to see if that does anything.

smae1980

As far as working out when you are sick, it depends on the illness. If you have a head cold, you can pretty much workout when you start feeling like you have the energy to workout. But if your illness is in your chest (chest cold) or your stomach, you should let yourself get better before you start working out again.

Regarding your workout routine, I can only speak for myself. I've been working out consistently for years. But whenever I change the strength training portion of my routine, I can generally guess that I will retain water for a good two or three weeks before I start seeing any losses.

As far as building muscle goes, chances are you aren't going to actually build muscle (unless you are eating more calories that you are burning and lifting very heavy). But you will see gains in your strength and, as you lose weight, you will start seeing more muscle definition. With regard to building strength, you shouldn't lift the same weight more than a couple of weeks in a row if you are trying to build strength. A general rule of thumb I've used in the past is to try to up my weight about 5% every two weeks. Don't try to jump up in weights too quickly, but if you continue using the same weight over and over, you won't see any strength gains.

In terms of seeing the exercise results (more muscle in the arms/legs etc), again I can only speak for me personally. But, for me, that is almost entirely dependent on my diet. I need to be at a lower weight and eating as cleanly as possible for me to have much muscle definition.

Hope that helps....and hope you start feeling better soon.

I agre here and well put!