Sweat it out, or stay home? (Alternate subject: allergies are the worst. Hey spring! ✨😷)
Illness: it happens to the best of us (and, surely, if you’re reading this, we are “the best of us.” ;) ).
It can be frustrating to be going through a training program, amped about how well it’s designed, how much we love it, and the results we’re seeing…and then get a nasty bout of flu, feel ultra weak, and not know where to go from there.
Do we sweat it out, or rest and recover? When we’re better, do we pick up where we left off, or start over, or abandon it and do something totally different? What about nutrition, once we can eat more than soup and saltines?
To answer that question, I think it’s helpful to understand a little bit about how our immune system works. Our immune system essentially has two branches: the innate immune system (our first line of defense…so think things like the mucus lining in your nose, white blood cells, etc.) and our adaptive immune system (which kicks in when the innate immune system fails…so think things like specialized white blood cells and antibodies that act against a specific pathogen and, over time, build immunity; AKA how vaccines work or why we only get chicken pox once, usually).
Exercise affects both branches of the immune system. In fact, it’s been proven that after one prolonged session of vigorous exercise (hey, marathon runners!), we’re more susceptible to infections for up to 72 hours, as the adaptive immune system is depressed. Short, intense sessions (or even moderate ones), along with long-term resistance training programs, however, have the opposite effect, avoiding the adaptive-immunosuppressive effect and strengthening innate immunity.
SO, all of that nerdfest to say, if you needed another reason to begin a resistance training program, you have it: fewer bouts of illness. :) BUT, we should definitely take it easy when we’re *already* feeling sick, as prolonged exercise can make it worse.
Things like stress and lack of sleep can also add time and/or intensity to our illnesses (because, duh, we know this from our experience: if we ignore our bodies’ calling for extra rest when we’re sick, we feel worse most of the time, don’t we?). And sickness itself is a stressor, so, basically, a feed-forward cycle: we’re not feeling well, then we stress about the work we’re missing and the workouts we’re skipping, so we further depress our immune systems, then we double up and go on a long run to “sweat it out,” depressing it even further. Bad news bears.
I believe an important distinction to make at this juncture is between movement and exercise.
We tend to get caught up in the “all or nothing” mentality in most places in life (“oh, I ate a slice of pizza? Let’s have cake; I’m already off plan.”), and this is no different: we think, “well, if I can’t go balls to the wall because Steph said it’s going to make me more sick, I guess I should stay in bed and do nothing.” Which, sometimes, is exactly what we need (if you’re vomiting or shaking or have a 103-degree fever, stay in bed. A thing that seems laughably obvious if you’re feeling well, but I think we’ve all at some point or another been down the, “now is the time I HAVE TO GET IN THE BEST SHAPE EVER” rabbit hole and tried to push ourselves through this, a thing I know both from the personal experience of doing it and from training clients who come to me that I’ve had to send home.). But, I often find that, provided my symptoms aren’t too crazy and I feel up for it, going for a 20m walk gets me moving and helps me to recover a little more quickly. So, step one: let’s not fall into the trap of thinking “off program” = “worthless,” because movement is healing and recovery, in many cases.
Letting our symptoms be our guide, we’ve recovered…now what? Jump right back in, or start over, or abandon the program entirely?
This, to me, is equally important and equally individual. I spent a long time beating myself up about losing strength or endurance after one bout of the flu, and that rhetoric, while common, is a disservice to ourselves, first and foremost. It’s pretty tough to embrace our #WonderWomanLoading huge mentality if we’re stuck thinking we’re supposed to be perfect; the process of attuning our minds to our bodies’ needs and desires is magical and can only be done when we embrace imperfection. Like I said at the very beginning, sick happens even to the best of us, so lighten up on thinking we need to jump right back in better, faster, stronger.
I also don’t say that for us to shy away from the pursuit of our goals. I encourage all of us to get back in the gym – back in the arena to dare greatly, if you will – and see what happens, because we sometimes surprise ourselves. I can think of a particularly mind-blowing time I had been out with strep throat and thought I was gonna die (I lost 12lbs in a week and couldn’t even eat a popsicle…not a good time), came back, planned to move through a couple deadlifts, and ended up pulling the heaviest I’d pulled in months a lot more quickly than it had felt before (note: I don’t necessarily encourage this method, because I am a little bit crazy.). Sometimes the rest and reset is exactly what we need to grow and recover and get rid of crappy movement patterns or achy joints.
Like juuuuust about everything in my life (both professional and personal), my advice is: try it and see what happens. All the theory in the world is great, but if we don’t put it into action and collect some data by feel, it’s not doing us any good.
In general, I recommend that my clients repeat the week before they fell ill. So, for example, if we’re on an 8w block, and you got sick mid-week 4, your first week back, I’d put you at week 3 and see how it feels. If it feels strong and smooth and not overly taxing, great! Keep going. If it feels rough on day one and like you’re not quite ready for it, I generally recommend backing off a little bit however you choose: either lighter weights, lower volume, or doing bodyweight versions of all of it to move through range of motion coupled with a few days of long, leisurely walking, then try again in a few days.
Recovery is key to #gainz always, but particularly when the improvement we’re after is healing. Be patient, which is just as challenging and playing just as big as going all-out is: it’s difficult to test and wait and see, just as it’s difficult to plan and build and do. We’re in these bodies for life, so learning how they operate and learning how to treat them well is a constant voyage deeper into understanding.
It might not seem enjoyable all the time, but the road to recovery, even (especially! Eek.) when we’re ready to either sit on the couch and forget what a barbell is (like that time I forgot about thrusters…for 6mo) or go all out with the best workout we’ve ever had in our lives, is an opportunity to get to know the mechanisms by which our bodies heal. Which is pretty dope, if you ask me.
Next week, we’re gonna tackle some nutrition myths that constantly float around in the fitness world (spoiler alert/great news: you can eat carbs again.).
In the meantime, as always, feel free to reply with any specific questions! I loooove the feedback- keep it comin’. :)
