Flu Season

I am a strength and conditioning coach first and foremost. My main clientele are athletes ages 12-18 years old, and fitness clients anywhere from 30-80. Over the past 6 years or so I have been first-hand witness to people’s insistence that working out will "sweat" the flu (or any sickness for that matter) out of your system. Well I can first say that I have attempted to achieve this early in my training career to no avail. It just drained my energy and well-being even more.


This is not surprising considering there is a link between the auto-immune system and the central nervous system. Although this area of study is extremely complex it has been suggested that exercise-induced stress can release stress and inflammatory hormones. Think about it. If you are sick your body’s immune system is trying to fight infection so your immune system is working overtime to release antibodies and fight the "intruder". Meanwhile, you put further stress onto the body and central nervous system by having an intense training session. On top of that your muscular system is now in need of tissue repair. Even if there wasn’t a link between the two systems, the sheer stress on your body is enough push your body to shutdown. Now if research is correct, the proposed link makes it even more important to let your body heal itself before you go knock around some weight.

No this is not to say that going for a walk while you have a cold is going to kill you, but save the weight training and 5-mile runs for a healthy-happy day. Since this is a happy-healthy day for me (besides waking at 5:00am) I am going to go throw some weight. Good day!!