Colds - Don't you just HATE them!?

eroo

3 weeks into another phase of bulking. Seen good weight gain and good strength gains, bringing my bench almost up to bodyweight. Then wake up on Friday with a cold kicking in. Today it's at full tilt. Now I'll probably have to take a week off now because my appetite is rubbish and I have slight muscle soreness..due to the cold!:D Anyone else HATE colds and their ability to mess up your programme??:pac:

/Rant

FunkZ

Yes! But no! I got a cold about four weeks ago. Really bad. But it really good knock on effects.

The cold was made a **** load worse from the amount I smoked, I was coughing up phlem by the bucket load. The smoking made this worse so I though about it and realised I had to stop smoking. Since then I've been bet into the cardio for the last three weeks, lifting a good bit I suppose and feeling 1000 times better.

So yeah colds are bollocks but I got a positive from one a few weeks ago! I alos got a sick note for that week in college!

/rant over =]

J.S. Pill

Everyone in work seemed to be getting struck down by colds for the last 2 months and I was gloating that I was the only one who hadn't. That was until Friday when I suddenly came down with something nasty just in time for the weekend.

You're right though. Colds are great for giving up smoking. I gave up all those years ago after a really bad dose. It actually hurt to smoke so I decided to take the opportunity to give up completely. It gave me a running start by getting me through the first 2 weeks, the next couple of weeks were hard but it was plain sailing after that. So forget nicotine patches people, just use your sick friend's toothbrush and you're laughing!

J.S. Pill

I'm here at home bed-ridden, I came down with a cold last friday, thought I'd shake it off after a day or 2 but it evolved into man-flu & I've been completely out of action since. I think I'll be lucky if I'm right for the gym at the end of the week. I was just thinking though, if you're out of action for say a week with a cold is it worth while using the time to drop a pound or two of fat?

A lot of people get alarmed when they step back on the scales after an illness to find their weight has dropped by a couple of pounds. I know that a lot of this is going to be fluid loss but is there any propensity for the body to waste more muscle while it is suffering from a cold as opposed to just being inactive for a week? As such, is it a good idea to drop your calorie level to below maintenance in this state? And is there much point engaging in fat loss for just one week then going back to a weight gain diet?

I've been eating more or less at maintenance levels for the last few days (accompanied by a large increase in pizza intake I will admit but hey, its the man-flu). I don't think I'm going to alter my diet for the next few days (got to get through all those pizzas bought in Tesco) but I just want to know for future reference.

Thanks

Tiriel

is it a good idea to drop your calorie level to below maintenance in this state? And is there much point engaging in fat loss for just one week then going back to a weight gain diet?

If your immune system is low and you are ill - starving yourself of nutrients is not going to help! You need to boost your intake of Vitamin C along with other vitamins and minerals. Also lots of water. Take the time to rest and give your body a chance to recover - a break from training may help rest muscle, giving you a boost in your regime when you return.

I've been eating more or less at maintenance levels for the last few days (accompanied by a large increase in pizza intake I will admit but hey, its the man-flu).

Man-flu :mad: :pac:

wahlrab

colds sometimes i find help me, they force me to take a short break, well actually i have still been training but at a lower intensity, anyway they help me re focus and offer a type of motivation, hard to describe but all i am thinking of when i have a cold is getting back to proper training. yes that's it i think

Racing Flat

I blame myself or take responsibility if I get a cold. We must come in contact with cold viruses all the time, so I'd imagine it's only when our immune system is down that the virus will be strong enough to take hold. And in my eyes, the immune system will only be down for one of two reasons (for people who train who don't have a medical condition affecting their immune system!): 1) overtraining 2) under-recovering.

By overtraining I simply mean too many hard sessions too close together, or significantly increasing quantity or quality of training over too short a time frame. So easy to fall into this trap when you are feeling good, but you have to be patient, the body takes time to adapt, can't rush it.

By under-rceovering I mean not getting enough rest between hard sessions, not sleeping enough, being too busy in work and still trying to get training in just the same, going out on the town too much, not getting the right food into you to replenish that used in training.

So train and recover sensibly and you should not get as many colds.

Also, your body should get a warning that it is getting run down. If you wake up with a slight sore throat, or if your waking heart rate is higher than usual, these are all signs to me. So once this is noted I top up the Vit C and train a bit easier than usual for a day or two, or more if needed, until the sore throat/heart rate is back to normal. Doing this prevents development of a full cold in my case.


Drives me mad when someone says 'someone on the bus was coughing and I must have got a cold off them' and I'm thinking, 'well if you didn't overdo it in training and go out on the tear afterwards the other night...'

cmyk

Racing Flat wrote: »

I'd imagine it's only when our immune system is down that the virus will be strong enough to take hold.'

Much as I'd like to agree with you Racing Flat, I think that's a bit of a blanket statement. To my knowledge there are hundreds of different viruses that can cause a cold, and more developing all the time so the body mightn't necessarily have immunity to all of them.

And when people say that they caught it from the person on the bus....it's more than possible, passed from contact, and I'd imagine packed on a bus full of people with no windows open this time of year only helps it spread. I only say this because I haven't trained this week because of a poxy cold!

Racing Flat

cmyk wrote: »

And when people say that they caught it from the person on the bus....it's more than possible, passed from contact, and I'd imagine packed on a bus full of people with no windows open this time of year only helps it spread.

If that's the case, why doesn't every single person on the bus get the cold?

g'em

cmyk wrote: »

To my knowledge there are hundreds of different viruses that can cause a cold, and more developing all the time so the body mightn't necessarily have immunity to all of them.

This is true - I think it's a bit harsh to say that if you catch a virus it *has* to be because your immune system is weakened.

To a large degree, where rapidly evolving and ever-changing viruses like colds and the flu are concerned our immune systems are working compeltely blind. We're relying on the fact that somewhere in the myriad of hundreds of thousands of different antibodies that we have there's one that will be able to recognize and latch onto a previously unseen virus.

Succumbing to a virus need not necessarily be duet to a weakness in our immunity, simply that the virus has gotten the better of us through means of clever evasion.

It's absolutely true of course to say that when you're tired/ over-trained you are more likely to be affected by illness as your immune system will be sub-par, but there's no need to see it as complete self-defeat and that it's necessarily one's own fault.

knoxor

From what I've read, there are a couple of hundred different cold viruses. Once you get one of them you are immune to that particular one. But because there are hundreds, we've still go a lot to catch.

Seemingly, the older we get the less colds we get because we are immune to a lot of them. So, think of it this way. The more you get now the better. You're able to cope with them better now while you are younger.

cmyk

Racing Flat wrote: »

If that's the case, why doesn't every single person on the bus get the cold?

Don't get me wrong, I didn't disagree with what you had said, merely that there are other factors at play too. Sometimes it's just um-possible to avoid a cold no matter how strong your immunity is at any particular point in time.

BossArky

Two personal examples stick in my head:

1) Back in Aug 07 I did a triathlon on a Sunday, then came up with the great idea of testing my squat / deadlift / bench max on the Wednesday 3 days after. I was dying for a week after that. Immune system in bits and picked up every bug going.

2) Worked from home for a few weeks ... not much contact with the outside world. Then, began a daily commute with the sweaty masses on public transport. Picked up a cold which I put down to my body not being used to the bits and pieces floating around in the public.

So, in an ideal world, don't overdo it fitness-wise.... and avoid public transport :pac:

Racing Flat

g'em wrote: »

there's no need to see it as complete self-defeat and that it's necessarily one's own fault.

cmyk wrote: »

Sometimes it's just um-possible to avoid a cold no matter how strong your immunity is at any particular point in time.

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I disagree. I think if you want peak performance you have to take responsibility for your health. Perforoming poorly and blaming it on a 'virus' is for me a kop out. Seeing yourself as a victim.

Taking responsibility for whether you get ill or not (in this sporting related respect), rather than seeing it as a passive event over which you have no control will increase your chances of achieving a peak performance at the right time, IMHO.

Again, maybe I'm wrong, but if I get a cold I attribute it to the fact that I've overtrained or under-recovered, rather than blaming it on the virus.

celestial

Racing Flat wrote: »

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I disagree. I think if you want peak performance you have to take responsibility for your health. Perforoming poorly and blaming it on a 'virus' is for me a kop out. Seeing yourself as a victim.

Taking responsibility for whether you get ill or not (in this sporting related respect), rather than seeing it as a passive event over which you have no control will increase your chances of achieving a peak performance at the right time, IMHO.

Again, maybe I'm wrong, but if I get a cold I attribute it to the fact that I've overtrained or under-recovered, rather than blaming it on the virus.

Well no - do you think that for someone who trains, getting a cold falls neatly into either of those two parameters - over-trained or under-recovered? So where does under-recovered end and over-trained begin?! And what if someone gets a cold when neither of those two scenarios apply?!

There are hundreds of viruses that can cause anything from a minor sniffle to a full-blown flu - and you could be feeling as fit as a fiddle, nice and rested and you can still catch something. Blaming it on just two concepts as woolly as those is being just a shade hard on yourself;)

Racing Flat

celestial wrote: »

do you think that for someone who trains, getting a cold falls neatly into either of those two parameters - over-trained or under-recovered?

Yes

celestial wrote: »

So where does under-recovered end and over-trained begin?!

Subjective - different for each person. You need to get to know your body and learn the warning signs. Lack of sleep, appetite, sex drive, raised heart rate, sore throat etc.

celestial wrote: »

And what if someone gets a cold when neither of those two scenarios apply?!

Based on my theory, this cannot occur;).

celestial wrote: »

you could be feeling as fit as a fiddle, nice and rested and you can still catch something.

I disagree.

celestial wrote: »

Blaming it on just two concepts as woolly as those is being just a shade hard on yourself;)

I disagree. I think you have to take control or ownership over your training, resting and health. You'll sometimes hear someone say, e.g. after a poor Olympics performance, that it was down to a virus. They rarely say it was down to a virus which they sucumbed to because they overtrained in the build up to the race, and that they overtrained because they were insecure about their own abilities, so tried to do more and more to compensate, and as a result overtrained, ran themselves down and rendered themselves susceptible to illness.

celestial

Racing Flat wrote: »

I disagree. I think you have to take control or ownership over your training, resting and health.

Totally agree, and I agree that getting this sorted dramatically reduces the odds of you getting a cold. Also really like your attitude - but I would need to see some proof that being in an ideal state (not under-recovered or undertrained) actually precludes you from getting one

Racing Flat

celestial wrote: »

I would need to see some proof that being in an ideal state (not under-recovered or undertrained) actually precludes you from getting one

I'm afraid I can't provide proof, but it would seem logical to me that being in the 'ideal' state (ie strong, functioning immune system) would massively reduce your risks of sucumbing to a cold. Maybe not 100% preclude, but 99.99% or so...:D.

cmyk

Racing Flat wrote: »

it would seem logical to me that being in the 'ideal' state (ie strong, functioning immune system) would massively reduce your risks of sucumbing to a cold.

There you go, massively reduce....but not conclusively! You're arguing against medical evidence, a quick google for common cold facts throws up a lot of arguments that due to evolution of these viruses, we have little or no immunity to some strains.

Much as I'd like you to be right, I bow to people with more knowledge on the subject than me.

Racing Flat

cmyk wrote: »

There you go, massively reduce....but not conclusively! You're arguing against medical evidence, a quick google for common cold facts throws up a lot of arguments that due to evolution of these viruses, we have little or no immunity to some strains.

Much as I'd like you to be right, I bow to people with more knowledge on the subject than me.

I'm not trying to be right, just saying that if I get a cold, I'll question what I did in the lead up that lead to the cold, so that I can try not to fall into the same trap again as opposed to just play the victim and feel sorry for myself that I was unlucky enough to come into contact with a virus for which I didn't have immunity.

cmyk

Ah that's fair enough, but don't beat yourself up over it, I'm only adding my points because I'm grumpy with one, despite having only trained 3 times last week.

I would have a similar attitude to yourself in terms of analyzing why I got one, I have been dodging them despite all around me having them for the last few months.

There are just so many other factors to take into consideration, stress (both worklife and family), sleep, diet, how many times you're in contact with a possible infection etc. Also as far as I know, for a short period after exercise your immune system is lower as the body tries to recover.

Sedentary people get colds too.
(But that's a whole different can of worms)

eroo

Btw, can I stress how important it is you avoid the gym completely if you have a cold!!? Last thing anyone wants is someone coughing and sneezing in a small gym. When you cough, your cold germs can travel up to 12 feet!

kevpants

Ehhhh you lads are seriously hard on yourselves. I can just picture some bloke lying on his couch under a duvet with a hot water bottle screaming "I'm such a failure!! I've let everyone down!! sniffle..."