Lifting with a cold

[tweakxc03]

I know this has probably been discussed before, but search function is turning up a bunch of junk.

At what point do you take days off to rest when you're sick?

I know that being sick will make recovery more difficult, of course...

[stronger]

if it's just a cold, you can lift. If you just got in a car accident with a semi, think about taking the day off.

(I find that my cold goes away and my congestion is diminished while I'm lifting, so it can be used as relief)

[Tom Campitelli]

With luck, you can get others sick by working out while you have a cold.

[milesdyson]

I enjoy the sight and taste of my own blood

[Tiburon]

Gary Gibson literally got hit by a truck and then went in and did his squats.

If you have a cold and feel like crap, at the very least get yourself into the gym and do your warmup sets, to keep the movement patterns fresh. You'll be surprised at the number of times that you end up feeling good enough to bang out the work sets.

[gzt]

Depends on how miserable I am. If it's just the sniffles, yeah, whatever, I'll train. If it's truly terrible, I'm skipping. I know enough about my immune response to know when a cold is threatening to get worse. The only time my asthma ever bothers me is when I have a cold that gets worse, and then I have a few weeks of worrying about that nonsense, which doesn't directly interfere with training, but drugs are bad and it might interfere with my sleep. So I figure it's worth it to take a day off and pile on the recovery (lots of food, 12 hrs of sleep, anything that will boost testosterone...).

[Greg C]

If I just feel a little "crappy," I'll warm-up and see how I feel and roll from there. Generally, I feel better after a warm-up and can go. If I'm running a fever or puking, it's a no-go.

[Tim Lofton]

My response would normally mirror what the others have mentioned above, but you have recently complained a bit of extended soreness and other general feelings of incomplete recovery. I would take all of this recent history into additional consideration when making your decisions for the coming week.

[ILiftAlone]

I woke up with a sore throat and stuffy nose today. Felt slightly light headed also but really didnt want to miss my workout. Finished my warmups and started my worksets. After the first set I felt like stopping. I guzzled lots of water and forced myself under the bar again. Felt slightly better. By the end of the workout I felt like I had never even woke up sick. I also set 2 PR's, I'm really glad I trained sick.

[milesdyson]

I woke up with a sore throat and stuffy nose today. Felt slightly light headed also but really didnt want to miss my workout. Finished my warmups and started my worksets. After the first set I felt like stopping. I guzzled lots of water and forced myself under the bar again. Felt slightly better. By the end of the workout I felt like I had never even woke up sick. I also set 2 PR's, I'm really glad I trained sick.

one thing i've noticed is that after an unexpectedly good session, the waxy maize seems to fill my glycogen stores more rapidly than normal. i imagine this could be true of any carb source, but i'm not sure. so i guess i'm just saying that if you had to pick which days to get your carbs post workout, it would be when you're feeling a little iffy.