Should a Person Do Strenuous Exercises With a Cold?

Likely, if you have begun a good fitness regimen or are training for your next big competition, you will not let anything interfere with your set goal. Yet, you've become a victim of a cold and although you don't want to impede your training, you also want to prioritize your health. The solution to whether you should exercise when fighting a cold is obtaining a healthy balance in your fitness regimen.

Exercise and Immunity

• Rest is important to boosting your immunity, as is exercise.

  Moderate and consistent exercise can significantly improve your immune system, but too much strenuous exercise can also impair it. This is called a J-curve relationship. Too little and too much exercise can increase your risk of catching upper-respiratory tract infections. The stress of strenuous exercise and cumulative over-training can both weaken an athlete's immunity. You must obtain a balanced program of exercise and rest.

Cortisol

• Part of the reason over-exercising can impair your immunity is attributed to the stress hormone cortisol. An increased concentration of this hormone decreases the number of functioning white blood cells. Cortisol concentrations only increase in relation to exercise of long duration, approximately one hour or longer. This exercise-induced release also increases inflammation throughout the body, making you more prone to infections.

Cold

• Mild exercise, such as yoga, can be beneficial to improving a cold.

  The question is how to approach exercise once you have a cold. As cortisol release is primarily in response to strenuous, prolonged exercise, moderate to easy exercise will have less of an effect on your immune system. In fact, regular and moderate exercise can prevent colds and significantly increase immune cells' number and aggressiveness. Yet, it is important to listen to your body. If you are exercising while sick and your heart rate and breathing is much faster than normal, it may be wise to tone it down a notch. Working too hard with a cold could add stress and hinder your recovery. Mild exercise, on the other hand, will help in opening up your nasal passages and getting your lymphatic system circulation moving, helping boost the healing process.

Protocol

• Fever is a limiting factor and a definite no for working out.

  Dr. Edward R. Laskowski M.D., from the Mayo Clinic, gives a few standard exercise protocols for when you are ill. General guidelines say exercise is OK if all of your symptoms are above the neck, such as a runny nose, congestion, sneezing and sore throat, but decrease the intensity and length of your workout. If your symptoms are below the neck, such as coughing or chest congestion, then avoid all forms of exercise. Also, if symptoms of fever, fatigue and muscle aches are present, also avoid exercise.