Working Out While You're Sick, Is It a Good Idea?

There's been a lot of different viewpoints on this topic for as long as I could remember. I know people that like to go the gym and workout when they're sick because they say they sweat out all the toxins and sickness pretty much, and they swear by it that it works! I on the other hand have tried working out before a couple of times when I was sick and it did nothing for me but make the problem worse as well as prolong it too.

Now there's a whole spectrum of different things a person could be "sick" with, some more severe than others, but they can range from a cold, to viral infection, bacterial infection, etc. and even a bad case of allergies can have a person feeling pretty crappy. Bottom line though in my opinion if you feel sick I urge you to stay home and rest, see your doctor find out what it is and see if he can't help you out. Even if you're feeling okay and strong enough to hit the gym I admire the dedication but you're only doing more harm than good and putting other gym goers at risk for catching whatever you have too; not cool! I know the feeling of wanting to workout so bad, especially when you've been making good progress, you don't want to stop, you don't want all your hard work to go to waste... I promise you though it won't! The sooner you go to the doctor, the more you rest, the faster you'll get better and be able to get back into the gym without loosing too much if any of your progress at all. Just because you're taking a break from the gym though doesn't mean your diet should too, keep eating the way you normally were, healthy, lean meats, healthy fats, slow burning carbs, a lot of veggies, throw in additional fruit, and plenty of water; and get lots of sleep 8-10 hours...

If you do everything right you should be able to get right back into the gym and into the groove of things right where you left off; you may even come to find that you're stronger from the break you took! For others it may take a couple of days to a week or two to get back into the groove depending on how sick you were, but after that you too will find that you have become a little stronger; just remember the body needs rest and breaks every now and then, listen to it! If you're going crazy though not doing anything, I'd say its okay to take a little walk outdoors to get some fresh air, but that's about it!