Working out while sick?

yogamom16

I seem to have caught my daughters cold. I want to keep working out but my head is throbbing. Should I just push through and get the workout over with or give my body a break until this cold is gone? What do YOU do?

Vickied84

I've been sick with a sinus infection the past 3-4 days and I kept pushing. I didn't go as hard as I normal but I still did a good amount of cardio and I didn't let being sick stop me.

onewhodiets

I always find working out while sick seems to prolong my sickness. Once you're into working out, you may have a compulsion to do it though and if you're young and basically healthy, it doesn't seem like it should matter too much if you want to work out, but if you want to get better faster, you may want to lay off the exercise. This is totally based only on what I have observed for myself and not any scientific data that I know about.

Centrifugal

A good rule of thumb is this: If you're sick from the neck up, it's okay to exercise. If you're sick from the neck down (chest cold, wet cough, etc) stay home and sleep.

Of course, it also depends on you as an individual. Personally, exercising with a headache just makes me want to curl up and die, and does not help. If it's a sinus issue though, doing some cardio will often help loosen me up.

Just make sure you wipe down the machine extra-well if you go to the gym.