Taking it easy on the sick train

I feel that you shouldn't do anything, while ill, that you really do not feel up to doing. Let your body lead you to decide. I have not been working out myself this week because I have hives all over my body so I am not getting enough sleep. I feel drained.

I don't workout when I'm sick because usually the only time my immune system breaks down is when I'm stressed and over worked. A few days rest isn't going to kill you. If you feel ill, have the chills and feel tired and weak then don't workout. You're body is trying to tell you something. If you feel fine but just have after effects such as mucus in your lungs or a runny nose, try a light exercise for one day only. If you get worse the next day then don't do that.

My fiance had the flu once when we were living in apartments. He was convinced that going outside to help maintenance shovel snow, while not wearing a winter jacket was the best decision for him.

He's still alive. Although if the the cold and flu wasn't going to kill him, I certainly contemplated it.

I'm a big fan of the mantra "Listen to your body"

I cam down with a cold last week, and turned up for my session with my personal trainer. He would not work out with me - instead he told me to go home and rest. He said working out while I'm congested is not a good idea and I need to let my body heal.

Depends, there's lots of states that are "sick" and lots of activities that are "exercise" and some match up and some don't. I follow the "above-the-neck" rule - if it's just stuffy head/sore throat/mild fever, I do less intense cardio for longer and do bodyweight or resistance bands instead of lifting. I usually feel better afterwards. If it involves other body parts, I rest.

When I first started, I'd say, "I have two small kids, if I didn't work out when I was sick I'd never work out," but I've noticed getting sick a lot less since I've been hitting the gym regularly. The 3-yo has had a cold since school started, but I've stayed healthy so far (knock on wood).

I've been feeling pretty nasty the last couple of days, and therefore took two days off to try to recover. Today I feel like I'm getting better, and I'm trying to work out again. My body isn't going to shake being ill overnight, but I feel like taking too much time off to recover is going to be worse in the long run - if I fall out of the routine, it'll be VERY hard to get back into it. My workouts might not be as intense, but I am still doing it again. Running nose and hacking cough aside ;-)

I ended up with a cold this week. Missed my workout Monday but wasn't feeling better by Tuesday and refused to miss another workout. Pushed myself through a pretty tough (for me) workout. Felt great all day. This morning was another story. I felt drained and more stuffy than I had yesterday. Decided since I worked out yesterday and felt better, I would try it again. I did a shorter workout today and feel awful. Not sure which I will try tomorrow.

I've just spent the past week with a pretty bad flu (also had a chest infection and was on anti-biotics), I haven't done any exercise and didn't want to. I wouldn't force my body to work so hard when it's already trying to fight off a virus.

I've gone back to exercising while still being sick and all it did was made me feel worse, now I feel it's more important to get myself 100% better and feeling good before going back to working out. If that takes an extra few days, then so be it, I'm in this for the rest of my life...