You have a cold, should you exercise?

A recent study sponsored by the American College of Sports Medicine indicates that moderate exercise while you have a common cold does not affect the severity or duration of symptoms.

It’s a widely excepted notion that exercising and staying fit will reduce the risk of getting sick, but nothing has been previously documented to show whether exercising while suffering from a cold would reduce or intensify symptoms.

The common cold affects us all, and the average American gets sick up to six times a year, but will exercising when you’re not feeling well increase or decrease your ability to fight the illness and reduce symptoms?

The study, led by Thomas G. Weidner, Ph.D., Ball State University in Munice Indiana, involved 50 moderately fit student volunteers, who were randomly divided into two groups: exercise and no exercise. Each volunteer was injected with cold germs and followed for a period of ten days.

All subjects kept a daily record of physical activity. The exercise group worked either by running, cycling, or using a stepper machine for 40 minutes every day, at no more than seventy percent of their maximum capacity (as measured by heart rate reserve).

At the end of the study and after analysis of exercise data, symptom severity, and actual mucosal weight measurements, it was shown that there were no significant differences in symptom severity or duration in the exercise or group group. on their inactive counterparts.

The study found that exercising at a moderate intensity level does not intensify cold symptoms or compromise the immune system. It seems that a moderate level of intensity is not enough to alter the immune response.

Reader beware, high intensity exercise such as weight lifting or high intensity aerobic training has been shown to negatively impact the immune system during a cold or any respiratory infection.

Symptom for exercise guidelines:

Runny nose, sneezing, sore throat only. Safe for exercising at low intensity levels.

Fever, dry cough, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea. Exercise is not recommended, resume more intense physical activity when the cold or infection is gone.

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