One of my current athletes, training for an early season Ironman has come down with flu like symptoms thanks to a co-worker that was kind enough to share his germs with the entire office. He was a bit concerned that he’d lose some of the fitness that we’ve been able to build up these past few months.In his particular case the symptoms were entirely above the neck, mostly congestion and sore throat. That being the case we continued our scheduled workouts but reduced the intensity a bit to ensure we remained completely aerobic.
Had the symptoms been below the neck (body aches, fervor, etc...) it would have called for a different protocol, namely take a few days off. Generally, if you take a break and rest you'll get over the entire illness faster than if you try to suffer though it. If you try to push too hard when sick with a cold or flu you could easily end up with further complications.
Have respect and listen to your body when it is trying fighting illness.
1 comment:
Hi Jeff,
Have you ever had an athlete come down with bronchitis? What would you suggest in that situation? I recently came down with that and took a week off and feel like I've lost some fitness. My cough isn't as bad now but I'm still hackin' up a bit but if I take anymore time off then I risk complete fitness loss.
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