on 07-Sep-2016 (Wed)

You really need to know your limits, she says. "If you are feeling kind of bad, you may want to consider a walk instead of a run. Take the intensity down or do a regenerative activity like yogaor Pilates because if you don't feel great, it may not be the best day to do your sprints," says Coopersmith, the author of Fit and Female: The Perfect Fitness and Nutrition Game Plan for Your Unique Body Type.

Exercise in general can help boost your body's natural defenses against illness and infection, Schachter says. "Thirty minutes of regular exercise three to four times a week has been shown to raise immunity by raising levels of T cells, which are one of the body's first defenses against infection. However, intense 90-minute training sessions like those done by elite athletes can actually lower immunity."

According to Thomas Weidner, head of athletic training at Ball State University, you should perform what’s called a neck check.That is, when determining whether or not to exercise, if your symptoms are above the neck - sneezing, sore throat, and runny nose - then it’s probably okay to work out.Weidner drew his conclusion from two different controversial studies in which his subjects were actually infected with thecommon cold. Evaluating his subjects in a controlled environment, he determined their symptoms were no worse (or better) for exercising while being ill. In fact, the group that exercised, versus the group that didn’t, reported feeling slightly better after exercising.

Of course there are benefits to working out in general as it relates to our health. Specifically, exercise is a scientifically proven immunity booster. Exercising regularly may help you avoid getting sick in the first place. In a study at the University of South Carolina, adults who exercised regularly and moderately caught twenty percent fewer upper respiratory tract infections. That said, while exercising moderately can boost immunity, the opposite is also true. Intense and vigorous exercise can increase your susceptibility to being sick. While all of this is well and good, it’s not necessarily news. It’s common sense that we should exercise for boosting our immunity when we’re not sick and that we should rest to boost our immunity when we are sick.

Many experts concur that the ultimate cause of sickness is stress. Stress produces the hormone cortisol, and cortisol turns off the production of cytokines, the molecules that encourage an aggressive immune response. While there are many ways to alleviate and manage stress (exercise being a key one), there are few ways to actually solve it. However, if stress is the root of what ails us, then why not take being sick as an opportunity to tackle stress head on versus avoiding or masking it? Exercising while being sick potentially does just that- masks the fact that you really don’t feel well.

Furthermore, exercising when sick certainly doesn’t aid your recovery process. So why do it? While exercising when we’re ill may help us feel better for the moment, it hardly helps us slow down to see the bigger picture of our health. Though perhaps not a popular opinion, I almost think we’re supposed to get sick on occasion. Our ultimate job in sickness is to learn and grow from the setback, as we should any challenge in life.