Fever after training

[Erik Y]

After training, my girlfriend will often have a fever. Sometimes this can last for more than a day. I don’t think this is especially healthy. We live in a hot climate but have air conditioning. She’s fairly athletic and deadlifts about two and a half times her bodyweight. Has anyone else run into this kind of issue before? What helped to resolve it.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Never heard of it. How is it being measured?

[Erik Y]

Thank you for asking. Mostly just with a hand, though it’s borne out when we’ve tested by thermometer in the past. Your asking has given me an idea to use the ubiquitous temperature scanning here to try to get some more data on this the next time it occurs - which incidentally is one of the reasons I’m more concerned about it than usual. I’ll report back if I find anything useful.

I’m surprised this sort of thing isn’t more common, at the same time.

[Mark Rippetoe]

So it's your perception of a fever. The perception of heat. RPF?

[jfsully]

Thank you for asking. Mostly just with a hand, though it’s borne out when we’ve tested by thermometer in the past. Your asking has given me an idea to use the ubiquitous temperature scanning here to try to get some more data on this the next time it occurs - which incidentally is one of the reasons I’m more concerned about it than usual. I’ll report back if I find anything useful.

I’m surprised this sort of thing isn’t more common, at the same time.

You can't really diagnose a fever by hand. Fever is elevation of "core temperature." Your forehead and most parts of your skin are generally a couple degrees cooler than your core temp. When you are hot and sweaty, or have some local inflammation, parts of the skin can come up closer to core temperature due to increased blood flow, and feel "hot," but that does not mean your core temp has changed. Fever is when your core temp is above 100.4F. Ignore people who tell you they "usually run cold" and have a "relative fever" when their temp is 99. The fever mechanism is, in part, to make the body inhospitable to infections, and microorganisms don't really care what your "usual" temperature is, so a "relative fever" would be ineffective for that purpose and mean you have devolved to lose a basic survival mechanism, you mutant.

I can't think of a reason why training would cause fever. If it's a properly measured fever, then I would be concerned and wonder if perhaps she has fever at other times too, and should go in for a checkup?

[dalan]

I don't know about the fever thing other than using your hand probably isn't that accurate. However, 2 1/2 times bodyweight...your gf is a beast!

[Mark Rippetoe]

I think she's probably just hot.

[eddieolong]

I think she's probably just hot.

Pics will be needed to determine whether or not she's hot. I got a fever the day after my first strongman comp, but that was measured by a thermometer. Sounds like either her metabolism is busting ass to recover. Either that or she's got the COVID.