Training with a head cold

iregk

As the title says , training while you have a cold. Now I've always been under the impression, basically from advice given to me over the years that you just don’t do it. As one seasoned marathon runner told me while training me for the marathon, your body fights hard with a head cold, you train and your taking away resources for fighting the cold and it will get a much better foot hold on you and put you out for 2 weeks rather than 2 days.

Reason I bring this up is a program I was watching on discovery health at the weekend called downsize me. One of the girls whos looking to loose weight got a cold and the trainer got her out of bed and told her to get back into her program as when you train you will clear up the cold. Sure enough a day later she was a picture of health pretty much throwing out everything I had been told clean out the window. Its come up here once or twice so I'd like to know what are all your thoughts on this? A lot of good hard trainers in here and more importantly a vast spectrum of disciplines are covered. So whats you call?

Training with a head cold. Yes or No?

JayRoc

Personally when I feel a cold coming on now, I just train through it and I can usually shake it off. I particularly find a nice cardio session seems to do the trick, although how much of that is psychosomatic is anyone's guess.
I used to just capitulate and try to do the "sensible thing" (ie not train, stay home and lash back the Vit C) and it'd take me a good few days to get rid of it.

That's just me though.

quozl

If it's just a cold then I think it's ok to train. If it goes below the neck or you have a fever or anything more than a basic cold then I wouldn't. That's the guideline I use, anyway.

Degsy

Agreed.A cold will run its course in a couple of days so you might as well get stuck in and forget about your misery,i find you tend not to notice it after a while and then afterwards your spirits have take a bit of a lift coz you dint sit around at home feeling depressed.A sore throat or chest infection is a different kettle of fish,they can easily get worse if you run your body down and set your progress back weeks.

Hanley

Hell yes train!!

I spent most of last month training thru a chest infection and toncillitus. Definately NOT something you sohuld do....

iregk

interesting the totally different views people have on it. I don't mean in this thread I mean what I've always been told and what I'm hearing now.

I guess a cold aint going to stop me no more. A chest infection now, thats something I just would not play with and would take the time off to fight it.

In fairness to you Hanley I think you had something rather important coming up that you trained through an infection!!!!

BrianD3

I'm not surprised that you have heard scare stories about training with a cold. I was told (by a nurse) that I was risking a heart attack by training while I had a cold. Jesus :rolleyes:

cold_filter

I always do it if i feel a cold coming on either i dont get the cold or its always very mild

brianthebard

I have a cold and sore throat at the minute, but went to the gym yesterday anyways. I lifted fine, although I wasn't expecting to. Going again this evening. Felt much better after leaving the gym than I had when I got there, and the hot shower afterwards helps unblock the nose!

daveirl

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Hanley

THe thing with me is that once I get any sort of cold it hangs around for a good while.

So I may as well keep training. It's not gonna effect me anyway like!

hunnymonster

I usually go with the above the neck rule too. Having siad that, if I'm feeling below par I usually pick a route that gives me a get out clause. If I'm not feeling ok after a couple of miles I'll go home. Rather have one below par day than a week in bed. If you really want to get technical you can get into the habit of recording your resting heart rate. If it's more than 5 bpm above normal you shouldn't train or at least you should so something sub-maximal until it returns to normal. Not that any of us do what we're supposed to.

quozl

hunnymonster wrote:

Not that any of us do what we're supposed to.

hear, hear

Odysseus

It depends on how severe it is for me and also what events I have coming up, I seemed to have developed a nasty habit of getting chest infections/colds before a big event, happened the last three times in a row:mad: So generally I will train through a cold or at least try to take it a bit easy, but if your a week away from a run you just have to try and treat it and hope you will be ok on the day.

hunnymonster

Odysseus, I've taken to taking some echinacea and zinc in the 10 days before a major race. It could be purely coincidence but I've not come down with anything since I started this "policy" and I used to get a few things in the taper period.

Odysseus

hunnymonster wrote:

Odysseus, I've taken to taking some echinacea and zinc in the 10 days before a major race. It could be purely coincidence but I've not come down with anything since I started this "policy" and I used to get a few things in the taper period.

Cheers for that, I give it a try for the next one, I have recently just added zinc to my supplement list so I try the echinacea before Lapland.

Sorry to hear about your enforced rest at the moment, hopefully you be back out there soon.