Should you Exercise when Sick?

                   Worried about your hard earned fitness losing its sheen if you are not going to exercise when sick? First of all, it is normal that a person get fever or sick due to external or internal factor. The sickness strengthens the immune system of the body towards other pathogenic attack in future. Health centric people are often careful about their body and do not always tend to get sick. But lets see what to do when a person get sick and is puzzled about undergoing exercise. 

Brought down by cold and fever

            A common knowledge is that a person affected by ‘above neck symptoms’ like nasal congestion, sore throat and cough without fever can continue with their exercise as it increases the blood flow throughout the body and there is an increased level of oxygen into the lungs, thus relieving the respiratory tract of various congestions. But be sure that you are not contagious to spread your cold. Whereas cold along with fever that may include ‘below neck symptoms’ is a certain no-no towards exercise.

Burning calories

            So you exercise to burn calories? Don’t worry, there is a proven theory that when a person’s body temperature increases due to fever, the level of calorie burnt by the body to produce energy also increases. It says that an increase of 0.5°C in the body temperature will increase the BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) by 5% which literally means that there is an increased level of calorie burnt by the body as its temperature increases. Though the level is significant, it is not the best way to burn calorie. Until you force yourself high calorie food, you don’t have to worry about increasing your calories as a result of not exercising and continuous resting. At the same time, low calorie during fever will make the immune system harder to battle the flu.

Immune system

            The various layer of immune systems act as the protective layer of our body. They need nutrients from our diet to produce vital hormones and enzymes to fight against the flu. At this critical time, your stress through exercise depletes the resources required by the immune system making it tougher to fight the flu.

Rest and nutrition

            Rest, good nutrition and lot of water are probably the best when sick rather than exercise. Exercise during sickness prolongs the illness gradually decreasing the person’s fitness rather than increasing it. Stress to you body which is already under attack from pathogens will lead to wastage of stored energy in your body. Nutrient depletion will be unable to repair damaged cells or tissues by producing hormones. Thus stress through exercise will delay your time to recover.

Recovery

            Exercise or physical activity when sick depends on the severity of the sickness. You know your body better than anyone else. Take time to look after it and heed to its requests. Once after you recover, do not go back to heavy exercise. The body has just rejuvenated from an illness and will take time to roll back to normal as it was before you were ill. So start with a low to mild exercise like aerobics. The body will signal if it is ready for exercise i.e. if you get weak or muscle ache during this start ups, it means that you are not fully recover and need to reconcile for a few more days, but if it isn’t, you are ready to go forward and pump the iron bars.

PS: I'm not a doctor, this articles reflects my views along with advises collected from various health websites. So if you are a health fanatic and doesn't want to stop your exercise you better contact your doctor. :)