Got a cold? Continue gentle training

[Arnold]

Got a cold? Continue gentle training

All athletes are faced at some point with a familiar dilemma: they've got some kind of bug ??? a cold, sore throat, or just feeling under the weather. So what should they do? Keep on training? Or rest until their immune system has got rid of the virus? In 1998 sports scientists at Ball State University in the US provided the answer to this question.

The researchers did an experiment with 50 reasonably fit subjects aged between 19 and 29. The subjects were divided into two groups. One group trained every other day for 40 minutes at 70 percent of their maximal heart rate [EX], moderately intensive training. The subjects could choose between sessions on the stair climber, the treadmill and the bike. The other group took no physical exercise [NEX].

At the start of the experiment the researchers infected [inoculation] the subjects with rhinovirus-16 [shown below], a common cold virus. Then they monitored the development of the cold in both groups of subjects.

The cold symptoms lasted for the same amount of time in both groups, but during the first six days of the experiment the training group had fewer symptoms than the inactive group. Both groups produced similar amounts of catarrh. The subjects had to hand in their snot-sodden handkerchiefs, which the researchers then weighed to calculate the amount of catarrh produced.

The graphs below show Z scores, which indicate the amount a measurement at a particular moment deviates from the average of all measurements taken.

"Results from this investigation suggest that moderate exercise training during a rhinovirus-caused upper respiratory illness under the conditions of this study design do not appear to affect illness symptom severity or duration", the researchers conclude. "This finding is important for athletes and fitness enthusiasts alike who are interested in maintenance of their fitness levels during a rhinovirus-caused upper respiratory illness."

Athletes with a cold who train more intensively or for longer than the subjects in this study will probably delay their recovery. The same researchers came to this conclusion in a review article that they published in the nineties. [Int J Sports Med. 1994 Jan; 15(1):1-9.] Intensive exertion inhibits ??? partly through a rise in cortisol and testosterone levels ??? the immune system.

Source:
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1998 Nov;30(11):1578-83.

 

[hypo_glycemic]

That's a really good info! Thanks for sharing

 

[bjg]

the key for me is to rest right when you barely feel you are getting sick : sleep well drink fluids and just relax for 1 or 2 days and you might not get sick at all as if you have beaten the virus. it helped me many times, once you get fully sick then its too late but i still think training is a bad idea.

 

[ThreeGigs]

My experience is about the same as the above. Cardio at an intensity sufficient to raise body temp to a low-grade fever range for about 15 to 30 minutes seems to knock a cold back a notch for me. But.. that's only if I catch the symptoms in time. Once a virus turns my body into a booger factory, I skip the gym. Partly out of consideration for others in the gym, and partly because training when you're too weakened can make a cold worse.

 

[davidjohnston]

That really is interesting. I think fitter people seem to get over the bad symptoms quicker, or don't get that badly affected with illness.
I think that the other thing to consider, is how many other people you're affecting, so you might get it a second time, when it's gone around the block and mutated into something different.

Very interesting that the exercises by itself won't affect the recovery period. I guess there's nothing stopping you going for a jog on your own though, is there?

 

[shifterz]

I always found that if you can do it without straining yourself too hard it will help deal with the illness. Sometimes, such as stomach flu, you just can't bring yourself to do it, let alone eat a meal.