Best to take break from workouts when sick

Nutrition, or the lack thereof, was my self-assigned subject this week, but I ran into a topic that requires immediate attention.

Should you change — or cancel — workouts due to illness?

In the midst of covering various state tournaments, I found myself coming down with a fever. Within 12 hours, I had a cold, complete with major congestion and a fever that usually hit later in the day. My first concern was work, which I got through thanks to ibuprofen. Secondly, there was this pesky little issue of maintaining my training.

Because of my spotty performance two weeks earlier, I didn't want to miss any workouts completely. So I scaled back. If I was scheduled to run four miles, I ran two. The day I was supposed to run eight miles, I ran four. I did do my weight workout, but at a slower pace. I rode the bike inside, rather than running outside on one of the particularly cold days.

I scanned the Internet for information or advice on whether to train through illness or whether rest was really the best way to handle being sick.

I found several sites that said if the illness was from the neck up, I could maintain training. But if it was in the chest or affected the digestion at all, I should completely lay off training. This was the confirmation I needed to keep working out, although it may not have been the best advice.

My trainer, Neil Anderson, who hosts the Fitness Zone on 1280AM Saturday's 8-10 a.m., offered me very different advice.

"People need to understand that when they're working out, they're breaking their bodies down," he said. "Your body is telling you it's broken down. It wasn't strong enough to resist a virus. So my feeling is, I don't care what it is, take five to seven days off the minute you feel sick."

He said that if I'd already gone past the worst of it, which I had, then I needed to listen to my body during the workout to determine whether I should keep pushing or go home and take a nap.

"When you come back," he said, "if you gain energy through the workout, then you're good to go. If you lose energy throughout the workout, then you've got to bail."

Anderson said there really isn't science behind the notion that it's OK to train through some illnesses but not others, or that working out when you're sick will help you sweat out the bad stuff.

"I've seen people come in with a cold and develop pneumonia because their bodies get so run down," he said.

Furthermore, my fear about losing what I'd worked so hard to gain the last few weeks was unfounded.

"It takes seven days to begin to lose anything," Anderson said. "You've got a good grace period, so if you're sick, use it. And that's just for cardio. Weight training takes even longer to lose fitness."