Not at your best? Give it a rest

Bleary as I was,though,an inane question surfaced at the edge of my consciousness: What about my workouts?

I didnt have to be a virologist to know the gym was out for now. But for how long? Could I work out while sick,if I felt up to it? And when I was ready to sweat again without a fever,how hard could I push it?

Getting into the gym or onto the road with good ol rock music blasting in my ears takes me away from everything. But Im no fanatic. I run about two to three miles two to three times a week,along with doing a couple of dozen push-ups at each session. Thats it for this middle-aged hack. I just dont like breaking the pattern.

So I began wondering,what do the experts say? What do the studies conclude about illness and fitness? Could exercise make me worse?

I was back at work within a day,but I was nursing a cough. By the weekend,I had a relapse and slept most of Sunday. During my active periods,I sought answers to my questions and discovered they were far from clear-cut.

I shot off an e-mail to Todd Miller,an assistant professor of exercise science at George Washington University.

Miller,a certified strength and conditioning specialist and a weightlifting coach,studies how muscles adapt to exercise. He said he wasnt aware of hard evidence behind any recommendations on working out after an illness. Im sure you can find people who will tell you what one should do… but those opinions would be just that, he said.

Nothing but opinions? I found it hard to believe. How long have people been getting sick? How long have they been exercising? How many academics are out there looking for a study topic? Somebody had to have done a study.

The American College of Sports Medicine pointed me to one published 12 years ago.

The study,conducted by the School of Physical Education at Ball State University in Muncie,Indiana,sought to determine whether exercising with a cold affects the severity and duration of the illness. The researchers claimed theirs was the first study to tackle the question.

They infected 50 volunteers aged 18 to 29 with a cold virus. All came down with colds,and their symptoms,including runny nose,sneezing,sore throat,were measured over 10 days. During that time,34 of them exercised for 40 minutes every other day,while 16 in a non-exercise control group did nothing. But those who exercised experienced no greater severity or duration of symptoms whether they worked out or not.

In the same year,1997,the Ball State team also looked at lung function among cold sufferers who work out.

But few,if any,similar studies have followed,according to experts in the field. Despite the dearth of data,the American College of Sports Medicine,which published the Ball State investigations in its journal,distributes what it calls a current comment on exercise and the common cold. The comment offers recommendations from clinical authorities in immunology. Among the advice: If you have had a cold without a fever or bodyache,intensive exercise can be safely undertaken a few days after the symptoms have disappeared. If you have had a fever,extreme tiredness,muscle aches or swollen lymph glands,you ought to wait two to four weeks before resuming intensive training.

The college also advises that mild to moderate exercise does not appear harmful while sick with a common cold,as long as the symptoms are minor.

Aaron Glatt,who specialises in infectious diseases and is a spokesman for the Infectious Disease Society of America,noted a possible reason for the paucity of studies on illness and fitness: It is difficult to assess exercisers with vague symptoms such as not feeling well. The opportunities to explore patients reactions to and recovery from,say,hip replacement surgery are far greater,he said.

To advise ill exercisers,Glatt relies mostly on the wisdom of the ages. Common sense is a great way to make medical decisions when youre not dealing with life-and-death situations, he said. If a person feels well enough to do some exercise,it is probably a reasonable thing to do.

But Glatt also urges caution. As long as the exerciser has no serious issues such as pneumonia or a cardiac condition,a moderate workout should be fine. But if youre sick enough that youre going to faint,then thats not the day to break your own personal record. You dont need to do everything you did when you were perfectly healthy.

For those exercising with a low-grade fever,it is important to drink fluids. A fever turns up the bodys thermostat,causing you to burn more calories and water. Glatt said you dont have to stay in bed,but,again,you have to use your head. You want to make sure you are adequately hydrated and nutritionally sound, he said. If a person has a queasy stomach and a fever and hasnt eaten for two days and expects to burn off a couple hundred calories,theyre probably going to faint or feel weak or uncomfortable at the very least.

My own bug moved on after a week,and I was ready to give the gym a shot. I called Mary Layne,a certified personal trainer and owner of LifeStages Fitness in Reston,Virginia,and asked if she would take me through her recovery regime.

Laynes first questions was: Did I feel at least at 75 per cent of my normal level of health? I did,so she aimed to put me through a workout approximating 75 per cent of what I might do in full health. She advised the same for running: If Im feeling 75 per cent well,then a run at 75 per cent of my usual distance and endurance would be good for starters. With the muscles,she went easy on me. A light workout just to say to the muscles,OK,were back in business again.