Is Working Out While Sick a Bad Idea?

By admin, on March 15th, 2011%

Is Working Out While Sick a Bad Idea?

Everyone around me had been getting sick for the past month. I thought I had dodged it by some stroke of good luck, good hygiene, and paranoia-inspired raw garlic ingestion.

workout while sick

[As the picture says, people, if you're sick - keep it to yourself! photo: welivefast/tobyotter]

I was wrong. I got sick.

So it’s been a few days of headaches, coughing, and feeling pretty crappy.

On the upside, I have gotten to watch around a dozen great movies.

(like this ridiculous chase scene from the 1971 classic, French Connection.)

(Some quick trivia: this scene was filmed in NYC and aside from the staged crashes, the rest of the cars were just normal traffic and had no idea what was going on!)

I look over at my training sandbag and have a hard time imagining ever lifting the beast.

My mind wants to DO something, but my body says “Go back to sleep…” I think to myself,

working out while sick – is it a bad idea?

Well, according to the experts, it depends on what you’re sick with:

Have a Fever? Take it Easy, Turbo.

According to this WebMD post, doing vigorous exercise while sick with a fever can overstress your immune system and lead to further dehydration, making you sicker for longer.

Your body is working as hard as it can to get rid of those bugs and get you back to full strength, so sit back and let it work its magic. If you get impatient and decide to go blast out a set of 100 burpees, you might just cause yourself to be sick for even longer than you would have otherwise.

No Fever? Keep it Mellow

In one study, scientists injected 50 healthy college students with the common cold virus (you can make pretty decent money being a lab rat as a college student. I had one friend who was paid $1000 to have a spinal tap done. Anyways…).

Half of the students didn’t exercise while sick, the other half did 40 minutes daily of moderate biking, running, or stair climbing at no more than 70% of their maximum effort.

Afterwords, the scientists looked at the data and found that this sort of exercise did not have any effect, positive or negative, on the length or severity of the subjects’ illness.

What you DON’T want to do…

When you are feeling sick, fever or no fever, don’t do anything like this:

(100 burpees to pullups – great workout, just not when you’re sick)

Your immune system is responsible for helping your body recover from intense exercise (think HIIT intervals or heavy resistance training), repairing your muscles/tendons/etc., making them bigger, stronger, and faster. If you ask your immune system to do this while it is already fighting a battle against the cold/flu virus, it won’t be able to kick the sickness as easily. So take it easy.

The Health Benefits of a Simple Walk – Moderate Exercise Boosts Immune Function

walking health benefits

[Here is a mother and daughter enjoying the health benefits of walking along the beach in nearby Morro Bay. photo: mikebaird]

Studies show that just going for a brisk walk can cause the immune system to increase the number and activity of natural killer cells and neutrophils (think of these little guys as the bouncers/doormen of your immune system, killing any suspicious intruders).

In fact, people who have a habit of doing regular moderate exercise are less likely to get sick than the general population. Elite athletes, on the other hand, often have a higher rate of upper respiratory tract infections, possibly due to the immune system working double time for exercise recovery as we just discussed.

Wrapping up… Is Working Out While Sick a Bad Idea?

So, here’s a quick summary:

  • Have a fever? Rest up. Don’t make your immune system work a double shift.
  • No fever? Do some moderate aerobic exercise if you feel like it.

That’s it for now, stay healthy and have a great week.

-Ian

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4 comments   Rehab/Injury Prevention, Uncategorized

Prevent Shoulder Injury – Warmup With These Rotator Cuff Exercises

By admin, on October 25th, 2010%

Having a hurt shoulder is no fun!

But don’t stress. All it takes is a little effort to heal or prevent injury.

Take a couple minutes to do these rotator cuff exercises – strengthen and protect your shoulder’s delicate rotator cuff muscles as part of your pre-workout warm up routine.

laguna beach awesome sunset

[Falling onto soft sand hurts a LOT less than falling onto concrete, and the view isn't so bad either. Here is an amazing sunset from Laguna Beach, CA. Photo by jamesbrandon ]

Rotator Cuff Injuries Have Many Causes

Years of baseball and surfing have made me prone to rotator cuff overuse injuries and shoulder impingement syndrome. To top it off, I also somehow keep finding ways to fall onto my bad shoulder.

Last January, I fell onto my right shoulder, mildly separating it for probably the 5th time! My shoulder hurt for about a week, and it took several months before I could do a normal pushup again.

Luckily for me, I soon found out about this great 2 minute shoulder rehab/warmup routine on YouTube:

I started doing these exercises before each workout as part of a warmup routine.

But since I don’t have an incline bench lying around my house, I just bent forward a bit as you can see here:

rotator-cuff-exercises

As it turns out, this position is also excellent for developing endurance in the lower back muscles, which studies have shown is a key element to preventing lower back pain and injury.

Laziness Leads To Injury!

At one point, I had an insight. I realized that my past shoulder injuries had ALL followed a pattern: I would get hurt, rest for a few days, and then be very diligent about doing these sorts of shoulder rehab exercises before every workout.

While I was keeping up with the exercises, I wouldn’t get hurt.

It was only when I got lazy and stopped warming up properly that I would injure my shoulder again.

So, from then on, I decided to these warm up exercises RELIGIOUSLY before each workout.

Also, since I couldn’t do a standard pushup without serious pain, I began working through the pre-pushup exercise progressions found in Convict Conditioning. Here is the first exercise, wall pushups, done for 3 sets of 50:

(Keep your elbows more toward your sides than this person. As easy as it looks, it took me a few weeks to get up to 3 sets of 50. Believe it or not, this is the first of ten exercises that progressively prepare you to do one arm push ups!)

The Result – No More Shoulder Pain!

So, 10 months after my shoulder separation and not being able to do a pushup without serious pain, my right shoulder is stronger than ever!

My shoulder now feels safe and pain-free, even while doing heavy overhead presses and handstand pushups.

So, learn from my mistakes. Warm up properly and keep your rotator cuff healthy!

Take care of yourself,

-Ian

Other Resources -

  • Here is an excellent injury-prevention post  about  shoulder and lower back endurance exercises for MMA fighters, some of the fittest athletes on earth.
  • My post here doesn’t even touch what could be some of the underlying muscular imbalances that can lead to shoulder injury, such as thoracic spine mobility and shoulder flexibility. Master physical therapists Gray Cook and Brett Jones have broken down all elements of shoulder pain’s causes, from improper breathing to lack of flexibility and endurance. I bought their DVD set, Secrets of the Shoulder, but haven’t gotten too deep into it yet.
  • Speaking of thoracic spine mobility, here is an excellent page that details how you can dramatically improve this ability with just a couple simple moves.
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Lower Back Pain – Exercises for What Ails You

By admin, on August 22nd, 2010%

Have you ever thrown your back out? You bend over to tie your shoes, and BAM! Your back seizes up and you can’t move without pain. I can definitely relate.

dancer-bending-forward

[As pretty as it might look, if she keeps bending forward with a rounded back like that, some day she might need to do these exercises to fix her back!]

I was doing a lot of yard work a couple months ago, shoveling and moving around a couple truckloads of mulch. I wasn’t paying too much attention and kept letting my lower back round as I lifted. After about a week of this, my back suddenly gave out!

Luckily, I found some relief. These lower back pain exercises from Eric Wong’s comprehensive lower back rehab program, Bulletproof Back, really helped me heal my back. See how they work for you.

This routine is pretty specific to injuries like disc herniations and bulging discs that result from repeatedly sitting or bending forward with a rounded lower back. While this is a common origin of back pain, there are other causes. So, don’t do this routine if you:

  • Hurt your back under a heavy load (for example, you were squatting a heavy weight and are pretty sure that you did some serious tissue damage)
  • Have a spondylolisthesis (don’t worry, if you have this you will probably know it)
  • Hurt your back in an extension movement (bending back)

Eric addresses solutions to these types of injuries in his program, but if you have one of these conditions, this particular set of exercises might do more harm than good. And as always, consult your physician to rule out other potential causes of lower back pain.

Why does my back hurt?

Before we get into the actual exercises, let’s look at the mechanics of this kind of lower back pain. Why does your back hurt?

When you bend forward, your vertebrae compress towards each other along the front of the spine. This puts pressure on the front of the discs, squeezing them towards the back of your spinal column.

Think of a tube of toothpaste. If you squeeze from the bottom of the tube, the toothpaste will be forced towards the tube’s opening.

Bending forward while rounding the spine, again and again, day after day, repeatedly squeezes the discs towards the back of the spine. The discs can eventually get injured, bulging out and pressing onto surrounding nerves.

When this happens, your back stiffens up. Your brain recognizes that a disc has been damaged. All the lower back muscles spasm, immobilizing the spine to prevent further injury.

Here is where these exercises come in. We first put the disc back into place by squeezing it in the other direction. Then we show the brain that all of the spine’s supporting and protecting muscles are functioning properly.

When the brain recognizes that everything is working ok, lower back spasms and pain begin to decrease, and you feel a whole lot better!

‘Damage Control’ Lower Back Routine:

  1. MacKenzie Pressups – 10 reps
  2. Hip extensions – 8 reps x 5 sec hold
  3. Birddog  – 4 reps x 10 sec hold
  4. Side bridges – 5 reps x 10 sec hold on each side

Check out more details on these exercises:

MacKenzie Pressup

This exercise helps to put your discs back into place.

Lie down on your stomach, with your hands right underneath your shoulders. Breathing out and keeping your shoulder blades down and back, slowly push your chest up while keeping your hips on the floor, arching back.

The key is to try to make your spine long as you bend backwards. Don’t just tip your head back.

Keeping your shoulder blades down and back, lower yourself down slowly, breathing in.

Be gentle at first, only gradually increasing the range of motion. If this exercise hurts for the first few reps, see if the pain decreases as you finish the set of 10. If pain continues, consult your doctor.

Hip Extension

This exercise lets your brain know that your glutes are activated and stabilizing the spine.

Lying on the ground with your feet around shoulder width apart as shown, push through your heels and flex your butt, squeezing these muscles hard to push the hips up. Relaxing all your other muscles besides your glutes, and especially your lower back muscles, hold the flex with your hips up for 4 seconds.

Lower back down under control.

Do this 8 times.

Remember to squeeze the glutes as hard as you can.This informs your body that there is stability in the lumbar (lower back) region, that there is no more need for the pain and stiffness of lower back spasms. The lower back can then relax.

Bird Dogs

Here Craig Ballantyne from Turbulence Training shows how to do several exercises, including the plank, side plank, and the bird dog.

Get down on all fours. Imagine that your hands and knees are in line with each other, each on 2×4 planks. Your hands should be right below your shoulders. Keep your back flat, in neutral spine position.

Lift one leg up slowly, straight up and back. Then lift the opposite arm up and straight out at a 45 degree angle to your body.

This angle is important, as it activates the lower trapezius, which is often dormant in people who sit a lot during the day with a slouched posture.

Keep your shoulders tucked down.

Hold for 10 seconds.

Repeat on the other side.

KEY POINT: When you lift your leg, don’t shift your hips to the side. Keep your hips right in the center, keeping your back level. Keep breathing naturally throughout the exercise.

This exercise activates the deep spinal muscles called the multifidus and transverse abdominus, which are key to the stabilization of each vertebrae. Activate these muscles and the brain will stop telling the lower back to spasm, since these important core muscles are doing their jobs.

Side Bridge/Side Plank

side plank

Lie on your side with feet on top of one another or with one foot in front of the other. Keep your elbow underneath your shoulder and your hand on your side.

Bridge your hips up, making sure that your shins come off the ground.

Keep your body straight, making sure that you are not bent forward at the waist.

If you are unfamiliar with this exercise, do it a few times with your back up against a wall to make sure you are aligned properly.

Hold for 10 seconds, breathing naturally. Repeat for 5 repetitions on each side.

This exercise works the side abdominal muscles called the obliques and quadratus lomborum.

Afterwords

Stand up and walk around for a bit, keeping your body in good posture. Now that you have done these exercises, your body knows that everything is working as it should and that back spasms are no longer necessary.

With luck, these lower back pain exercises will quickly help you get better and feel better.

How Often

Eric recommends doing this routine 2-3 times per day after you throw your back out. He also suggests doing these exercises daily to prevent injuries.

Good luck!

-Ian

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