A person who regularly goes in for sports feels physical discomfort, refusing from the usual workouts. Is it possible to continue sports activities during a cold? How do sports and colds “combine”?
Sports and colds: scientific research
The American College of Sports Medicine conducted a study on 50 volunteers. Half of the test subjects were infected with a mild strain of a viral respiratory infection. Observations continued for 10 days. All the subjects during the period of illness were engaged in daily training: some intensive (bodybuilding), some - running and exercising on simulators. The study group infected with the virus and healthy students who exercised moderately recovered in the same way. A group of experimental subjects who during the period of illness were intensively engaged in bodybuilding recovered slowly and recovered for a long time.
The findings of the study are as follows: moderate physical exercise(aerobics, running, fitness equipment, yoga, etc.) do not cause complications.
This study had opponents, whose main objection was the following: the test subjects were infected with a weak strain of the virus, while in real conditions, viruses have a much more aggressive effect on the human body.
Professional sports: contraindications
At professional athletes there is a rule "above the neck". In cases where the disease is “based” above the level of the neck (runny nose, sore throat), you can do it. It has long been established that after training, nasal congestion disappears and breathing becomes easier.
In cases where the disease is "below the neck" - you can not play sports. These cases include muscle pain, chest pain, etc.
An absolute contraindication for sports is an increase in temperature. Professional training is also canceled with the following symptoms: inflammation, pain, cough, difficulty breathing, heaviness in the arms or legs, muscle pain. In such conditions, even warm-up and simple exercises are contraindicated.
Sports and colds: non-professionals
Professional athletes are always under the supervision of qualified doctors who will accurately determine the possibility / impossibility of training for them in a certain condition. Is it possible to play sports with a cold? How to determine the admissibility of training for an amateur who does not have the opportunity to consult a doctor?
There are two opposing scientifically based medical views on amateur sports.
Opinion 1. Sports loads are contraindicated for any painful symptoms: sneezing, coughing, slight malaise, nasal congestion, etc.
Opinion 2. If a person feels well enough and continues to live as usual, goes to work or school, training is not contraindicated.
At the same time, all doctors agree on absolute contraindications to playing sports with a cold:
- Heat. Any increase in temperature indicates inflammatory processes in the body. Doing sports with inflammation is impossible!
- Flu. With influenza, the body is in an extremely depleted state - the recovery period after this illness takes about 2 months! It is forbidden to deal with the flu during the acute period of the disease. After recovery, doctors advise for another 2 weeks to reduce the intensity of training. Influenza is especially dangerous in complications that can lead to chronic heart or kidney disease if you carry the flu on your feet.
- Cough - chest, intense - is a contraindication for sports.
- Pain in the joints, muscles, aching bones.
- Prostration. If the body is exhausted and needs rest, it is unreasonable to load it. If a cold is accompanied by severe weakness, fatigue, this is a reason to skip a workout.
Sports: health promotion
It is well known that exercise reduces the risk of colds, including the flu, by 50%. Doctors explain this by the fact that physical activity strengthens the immune system and increases the level of leukocytes in the blood, which contributes to the fight against disease-causing agents that have entered the body.
What simple physical activities help to avoid colds?
- Daily run on fresh air or walking for 30 minutes;
- aerobics every other day;
- yoga;
- stretching (stretching);
- tai-bo (aerobics with elements of oriental martial art);
- tai chi (slow Chinese gymnastics suitable for all ages)
- water aerobics.
Sports and colds: a smart combination
If there are no absolute contraindications to playing sports, and a cold does not give severe symptoms, you can start training.
How to do it without harm to health? There are several rules developed for playing sports with a cold.
Reduced workout time.
The duration of training is recommended to be reduced by 30-50%. Thus, with a typical workout lasting 1.5 hours, the training time for a cold will be 40-60 minutes.
Decreased intensity of training.
During illness, the intensity of training is reduced by 50%. You can reduce the number of “sets” of each exercise by 2 times, reduce the time of work on each simulator by half, or reduce the load.
You can do a workout aerobic exercise, run on the track, do step aerobics.
Do not exercise during a cold strength exercises. Scientists have found that during the flu and colds, anabolic processes in the muscle decrease. Physical activity with slow anabolism leads to the destruction of muscle mass.
Compliance with the recovery period.
After recovery, the load is increased gradually. In the first week, the intensity of training increases to 50-70%, in the second week gradually - up to 75-90%. They begin to train in the usual mode on the third week after the illness.
In the recovery period, it is recommended to take vitamin-mineral complexes.
Taking a large volume of liquid.
During a cold, the body needs a lot of fluid. During training, it is recommended to drink warm purified water every 15 minutes.
Complete rest.
For a quick recovery, a good rest is recommended - after training, the sick body will need peace and good sleep.
Caution after exercise.
After physical exertion, immunity drops for several hours. It is advisable to protect yourself from hypothermia and being in crowded places.
Training: the moral aspect
Most colds are SARS - viral infections. The patient during the acute course of the disease releases viruses when sneezing, coughing, with sweat.
Training in an indoor gym will create a risk of infection for everyone in it: other athletes, coaches and staff.
The advice to exercise while wearing a mask is quite controversial – is it comfortable enough? Probably, it would be more decent to skip classes or work out at home during SARS.
How to combine a cold and sports?
Do not exercise at elevated temperatures great weakness and pain.
Reduce the duration and intensity of your workouts.
Recently I got sick, but now I feel fine. The runny nose is preserved, in the evenings I feel a little tired. Tomorrow I have a workout in the gym, I follow my figure, is it possible to go in for sports with a cold, if there is no temperature or is it insignificant? Irina, 22 years old
Normal well-being and malaise in the evenings cannot mean a satisfactory state of health. The patient needs a sparing regime, stay at home. By enduring a cold and fever "on their feet", people themselves provoke the addition of secondary infections, overwork and a decrease in immunity, complications on internal organs and systems. If you yourself feel a mild course of a cold and there are no other symptoms other than malaise, you can do light workouts within physical training . The load should be applied gradually and 3-4 days after the first symptoms.
Lethargy, malaise, slight body temperature - all this can affect the deterioration of well-being after exercise, so it is generally better to refrain from visiting the gym. Given the purpose of your training, you should refrain from training and skip 1-2 sessions. The body will get stronger, strength will return, and sport will bring the necessary benefits. During a period of discomfort sports loads are not only useless, but can also cause some harm due to biochemical processes inside the body.
During malaise due to illness, stress, severe overwork, neuropsychiatric stress and prolonged fasting, the body produces a special hormone - cortisol. The hormone belongs to the catabolic group, which promotes the breakdown of protein, including muscle protein, increases blood glucose levels and promotes fat storage. Cortisol helps the body adapt to emergency conditions, creating additional resources to restore a person's strength.
In other words, the body begins an intensive accumulation of useful and nutritious substances by breaking down protein into amino acids, and glycogen in the blood into glucose.
It turns out, giving the last strength in training in case of illness, the body accumulates fats and trace elements, due to the destruction of muscle structures.
So, is it possible to train with a cold? For any physical activity There are a special number of factors that should be considered when going to training. Classes are prohibited under the following conditions:
increase in body temperature;
chills, fever;
manifestations of a viral or bacterial infection;
aches in the joints;
inflammatory diseases of the throat (tonsillitis);
period of antibiotic therapy (reception of systemic antibiotics).
Taking antipyretics, antibiotics and attending a workout can adversely affect the condition of the kidneys, liver, and lung structures. The temperature can rise even against the background of the drugs taken. Physical activity increases the load on the heart and blood vessels. With a burdened clinical history, the simultaneous course of acute respiratory viral infections, influenza or the common cold with a worsening condition requires the patient to rest, observing a protective regimen.
After recovery, you should not start exercising immediately. The body needs time to recover, so it’s enough to limit yourself to walking in the fresh air, a light jog in the park or in the forest. Physical activity should be gradual.
Cold training can be useful for improving natural ventilation of the lungs, improving blood circulation, and stimulating the overall tone of the body. A beneficial effect can only be with an uncomplicated cold. During a mild cold without fever and signs of complications, a number of some recommendations should be followed:
reduce the duration of the workout by 20-30 minutes, subject to an hour session;
reduce the intensity of physical activity by 50%;
do a warm-up by doing simple exercises;
give preference to yoga, Pilates, slow stretching on the floor;
drink water while exercising.
During the recovery of the body, the same rules should be followed. Too intense loads during the rehabilitation period can provoke a new jump in the disease.
When exercising in the gym surrounded by a large number people should refrain from exercising for up to 2 weeks to eliminate the risk of re-infection by airborne droplets.
It is important to understand that if with a cold without any special manifestations you can run and do feasible sports, then with the flu it is important to stay at home and observe bed rest. Unfortunately, you did not specify how long the cold lasts. Perhaps these are the initial signs of SARS or influenza. In order to avoid complications and aggravate the clinical situation, it is better to refrain from visiting the gym.
Also, subsequent sessions should be postponed if there is a significant deterioration in the training process. The body requires sufficient resources and energy costs in the event of a disease, directing all its efforts to eliminate pathogenic pathogens. During a cold, you need to drink enough fluids. An ideal option would be decoctions based on berries, herbs, dried fruits.
It is important to follow a diet, stop smoking, alcohol. For a quick recovery, you should take vitamin complexes, freshly squeezed juices, fresh vegetables and fruits. Saturation of the body with vitamins has a beneficial effect on general state, improves mood, increases resistance to pathogenic microflora.
If children during the period of a cold and its complications are given exemption from physical education, then adults should independently assess their own well-being and make a decision. It is better to allow the body to rest and recover than to provoke an increase in temperature and the addition of various complications after a workout.
Save:Whether physical activity is useful for a cold - scientists answered this question in a study conducted by the College of Sports Medicine in the United States. Those who led the study found that exercising for mild colds helped reduce symptoms.
And, on the contrary, strength training can completely unsettle a person during a cold or, even more so, the flu. Power training in heavy sports such as powerlifting, arm wrestling, and bodybuilding have shown a significant worsening of cold symptoms in people who have not stopped exercising.
Sports can help you recover faster
This conclusion was reached by scientists during their study. But only if, according to scientists, if physical activity does not deplete the body. After all, what a healthy person can do is sometimes beyond the strength of a sick person. A cold weakens the human immune system, and with it all other systems of the body.
Therefore, even with a relatively normal state of health and a cold in the initial stage, increased exercise can only make the symptoms of a cold worse. But in a more serious condition, but with an optimal load (simple exercises and healthy diet, plenty of water throughout the day) sports can shorten the time of illness and relieve its symptoms.
Even taking into account the fact that an average person has a cold up to 5 times a year and this person is an athlete, a cold can prevent him from exercising. But don't sacrifice your health for sports. If you get sick - reduce your sports load, and you will recover much faster.
What happened in the groups of subjects during the experiment?
Scientists at the American University in Indiana conducted a study of 50 people under the guidance of Professor Weidneris, MD. These 50 people - students - agreed to be injected with virus-infected serum, and then scientists observed them for 10 days. At the same time, 25 students were actively involved in sports throughout this period, while others practiced only light exercises.
After 10 days, it turned out that those students who did not subject their body to too heavy physical exertion during a cold recovered more quickly. Their cold symptoms were not as severe as those who did extremely intense strength training. You can draw the conclusion yourself.
Reality and the cold experiment
Experiment with students - this must be taken into account! - carried out under mild laboratory conditions. The virus he injected was not severe and did not cause very severe cold symptoms, as is often the case in real life. But those who periodically suffer from colds should know that in ordinary life a person suffers from many strains of viruses against which immune system man is very difficult to fight.
In addition, unrecognized viruses can cause severe complications: disruption of the heart, blood vessels, respiratory system, kidneys, liver, cause intoxication of the whole organism, which causes unbearable pain in the muscles and head. And then it can be quite difficult to distinguish the flu from the common cold, choose the right treatment, and even calculate the duration and intensity of physical activity. Your doctor will help you with all this.
If you get sick - do not torture yourself, but rest more, and do the exercises that you can do. This way you will recover faster and there will be less chance that the cold will return soon.
Complications due to physical overload
It is clear that even a mild cold is a burden on all body systems. It suppresses anabolic processes in the muscles, activates the production of the stress hormone cortisol, which poisons your tissues and causes the muscles to become painful, destroying them. If a person does not give himself a break, actively doing sports, these processes are accelerated and aggravated. And then from training you will not only get no sense - it will significantly harm you.
Do not play sports and do not give yourself a lot of physical activity if:
- You are in the midst of a cold
- Your symptoms get worse
- You feel increased weakness and fatigue
- You don't sleep well
- You have an elevated - over 38 degrees Celsius - body temperature
- Your muscles and head hurt
- You cough and wheeze
- It's hard for you to breathe
If the disease proceeded in a severe form, it is better to avoid physical activity for about 3-4 days after recovery - this guarantees you best effect getting rid of a cold.
What remedies will help to cope with a cold?
Please note that these remedies will not shorten the duration of your illness, but they may reduce the severity of your cold symptoms.
- Antipyretic drugs such as Theraflu
- Sucking cough drops with analgesic effect - for example, travesil
- For a severe cough symptom, take an antitussive syrup such as tussin or travesil
- To reduce irritation and dryness in the throat, you can use sprays such as lugol, cameton or inhalipt
Prevention of colds in combination with sports
Even if you are actively involved in physical education and sports, do not forget about the following cold prevention methods:
- Be sure to drink vitamins about a month before the onset of cold seasons - in October and April. Vitamin complexes on the recommendation of a doctor, you should take at least twice a year - in spring and autumn
- Rest and sleep - this will reduce the risk of illness
- Take vitamin C and glutamine as recommended by your doctor, especially before seasonal flu outbreaks
- Boost your immunity with echinacea extract (unless you have high blood pressure - echinacea will increase it even more).
- Temper at any time of the year, but gradually.
So, physical activity during a cold, as we have seen, depends on the state of health and the severity of the disease. Therefore, when deciding on sports during a cold, you need to be guided by doctor's prescriptions and your own common sense.
The diagnosis of diffuse inflammatory disease of the bronchi in the medical history of an active person is not a sentence, he is interested in whether it is possible to play sports with bronchitis or physical education is completely contraindicated? From time immemorial, experts have unanimously argued that it is strictly forbidden to carry the disease “on the legs”, and in this case it is impossible to avoid the aggravation of the situation. The patient is prescribed rest and drug therapy. After recovery, on the contrary, it is recommended to actively engage in sports activities, as ventilation of the lungs increases and there is a therapeutic drainage effect. But is it really so?
Accompanied by an ailment called bronchitis, very unpleasant symptoms in the form of high body temperature, regular sore throat, debilitating dry cough or wet sputum with outgoing. The disease occurs and develops in patients of any age category: from young to old and regardless of social status.
Science has estimated that approximately 90% of the world's population has had bronchitis at least once in their lives. Therefore, whether physical activity is allowed during inflammatory processes occurring in the respiratory tract is a question that is relevant in the modern world, where sports come first for many.
There are risk groups when the disease is more severe.
They include:
- smokers;
- allergy sufferers;
- elderly patients.
Sometimes the inflammatory component is an independent part of the pathology, and sometimes the development of the disease is facilitated by an infection, virus, or bacterium that has entered the body of a healthy person.
Bronchitis, no matter how treatable at first glance, it carries a danger: if its treatment is ignored at the first stage, it will develop into an acute form, spread to the lungs and pleura, which will subsequently lead to infectious pneumonia or pleurisy. To those who are not at all lucky - a complication will be fatal.
According to the classification of medicine, bronchial disease is divided into two stages:- Acute. Symptomatic manifestations are expressed in the form of a cough, general malaise, the muscular base weakens, the body temperature rises. Doctors and drugs successfully cope with it.
- Chronic. There are possible problems with the treatment of cough due to irreversible processes in the bronchi. Exacerbations are recorded twice a year.
In this disease, drug therapy is prescribed based on the severity, of which there are three: mild, moderate and severe. In what case is sport with bronchitis not a contraindication?
Do sports or not with bronchitis
Nobody will say for sure. All questions related to drug therapy and physical therapy must be agreed with the attending physician.
Self-treatment is a forced form that takes place in an extreme situation.
Exercise therapy for bronchitis is developed by a specialist, taking into account the individual characteristics of the patient, his current condition and the very course of the disease. Gymnastics is an integral part of the overall therapeutic treatment.
What does exercise give the body?
It solves the following tasks:
- Restores breath. Makes it right. Performs a drainage function.
- Stimulates the patency of the tract. Strengthens the muscles that take an active part in respiratory activity.
- Eliminates inflammation in the bronchi. Accelerates lymph flow and normalizes blood circulation.
- It has a preventive effect on complications after bronchitis and blocks its progressive onset.
- Minimizes attacks of spasms in the bronchi and bronchioles.
- Increases immunity. The body becomes more resistant to colds.
The therapeutic complex includes static and dynamic movements, while doing which, do not forget about breathing:
- Walking. Its healing properties lie in the fact that a gradually increasing pace stimulates the work of the respiratory organs, when vigorous exercises are difficult and difficult to perform. Daily receptions should be started with a slow step, increasing the load over time. You are allowed to run. Don't forget about breathing. Every second and fourth step is accompanied by an inhalation, on the fourth and seventh step an exhalation is made. Required condition- monitor the condition, as soon as you feel tired, it is recommended to slow down or even take a smoke break.
A regular increase in load is allowed in the case of a chronic form of bronchitis. During a period of severe exacerbation, physical education is contraindicated.
- Sound gymnastics. Phlegm is well removed from the bronchi during the pronunciation of certain sounds. This method is especially productive in case of purulent bronchitis in chronic patients. The implementation scheme here is as follows and is quite simple. First you need to sit comfortably. Make a slight forward lean. Take a deep breath with as much air as possible. Then slowly exhale, pronouncing the sound combination “pff”. At this moment, the articulatory apparatus vibrates, which helps to expel sputum. You can also use other vibrosounds: "p", "g", "s".
- Massage chest. Every capable patient is able to do it on their own. Here, the only simple movement is to gently rub the area of \u200b\u200bthe sternum with a palm in the direction from its center to the armpits. The duration of the session does not exceed 10 minutes. During this time, sputum output is stimulated and respiratory capacity improves.
Moderate exercise in bronchitis helps the sick person to overcome the disease. Active sports activity during the period of exacerbation is not allowed.
Protecting yourself from colds is quite difficult. This process leads to weakening of the body, discomfort and loss of strength. The disease can affect even those people who daily perform physical exercise. This begs the question, is it possible to play sports with a cold?
Specialists conducted an experiment on fifty volunteers, half of whom were forcibly infected with a viral infection. The duration of the study was ten days. During illness, one part of the subjects was engaged in weightlifting. The rest did jogging and worked out on simulators.
The group that was infected with the virus and practiced light sports recovered in seven days without harm to health. Bodybuilders and heavy lifters did not begin to recover until the tenth day.
After that, the experts concluded that those who undergo light training for a cold recover normally and do not cause complications.
Of course, this method checks had many opponents. After all, the infection did not occur in natural conditions, and the virus strains were too weak. In the natural environment, things are different.
Some contraindications to playing sports with a cold
Professionals say that all diseases that occur above the neck are not a restriction on playing sports during a cold. With mild congestion of the nasal passages, runny nose and sore throat, you can train.
When the disease affects the joint and muscle tissues, colds and sports become incompatible.
An absolute limitation to any exercise is raising the temperature above 37 degrees. Also, a professional does not engage in sports training for various inflammatory processes, pain, coughing, shortness of breath, heaviness in the arms and legs, and muscle pain.
Sports for colds in non-professionals
Training during a cold or its absence among professionals takes place under the strict supervision of specialists. It is the doctors who determine the patient's condition and make a verdict on whether it is possible or impossible to perform the exercises in this case.
But what about those who go in for sports on their own? Are they allowed to exercise during a cold? How to correctly determine your condition? Trained people can perform light exercises. But there are two opinions on this.
The first is that any load is contraindicated even at the first manifestations of a cold. These include sneezing, coughing, mild malaise, weakness, runny nose.
The second opinion is based on how well the patient feels. If a cold does not greatly affect his general condition and there is a slight nasal congestion, runny nose and sore throat, then visit sports training Can.
Based on two opinions, the specialists define the absolute limits.
- Patient has elevated temperature. Such a process always indicates that an inflammatory process is taking place in the body. It is strictly forbidden to engage in any physical activity during inflammation.
- Flu infection. When this disease occurs, the body undergoes severe intoxication, as a result of which not only the temperature indicators of the body increase, but also a weakening of the body occurs. The recovery period after suffering the flu should be at least eight weeks. It is impossible to train with such a process, since the flu carries many complications.
- Cough of an intense nature, which comes from the chest region.
- Pain in the joints and muscle tissues, bone ache.
- Loss of strength. When the body is very exhausted, it requires rest. Therefore, it is not worth overloading it with physical activity.
Sports as a preventive measure for colds
There is an opinion that sports loads reduce the likelihood of a cold. Experts say that physical activity strengthens not only muscles and joints, but also immune function. Thanks to sports, the level of leukocytes in the blood increases, which allows the body to better deal with pathogenic microflora.
What can you do to avoid colds? It is not necessary to get involved in weightlifting and constantly torment yourself with loads. They should be moderate and pass in one or two days.
The patient can do:
- daily running in the fresh air for thirty minutes;
- aerobics every other day;
- yoga;
- stretching of muscle fibers;
- aerobics combined with oriental martial arts;
- slow Chinese gymnastics;
- water aerobics.
During the period of colds, vitamin complexes and immunostimulating agents should be taken as an additional therapy.
Proper exercise for colds
If the patient does not have absolute restrictions, then you can start doing workouts. But for them to benefit, you must follow a few rules.
- Reduce the duration of training sessions by twenty to forty percent. If in normal mode sports last an hour and a half, then with a cold it should last no more than forty minutes.
- Lower intensity training process. During the period of a cold, the indicators are reduced by fifty percent. That is, the number of exercises and approaches is reduced by about half.
It is enough to do a warm-up, run along the track and perform simple exercises.
During a cold, any power loads are contraindicated. - Observe the recovery period. After the patient has recovered, the intensity of the loads in the first days can increase up to fifty percent. A week later they are raised to ninety percent. During the recovery period, doctors advise taking vitamin complexes.
- Consume a lot of liquid. During a cold, the body loses a lot of water. As a result, the muscles dry up and weaken. To restore balance, you need to drink up to two liters of fluid per day.
During the training process, the patient needs to drink water every fifteen minutes.
- Provide the body with proper rest. To recover quickly, after physical exertion, the body needs to rest.
It is worth noting that after training, the patient's immunity drops greatly. Therefore, large crowds of people should be avoided.
Strengthening the immune function is not only physical activity. In order for the body to recover and recover faster, you need to follow a few recommendations.
- Refuses to take medication. For a viral infection, you need to take antiviral drugs, for a bacterial infection, antibiotics.
- Observe proper nutrition. During a cold, food should be gentle and soft. Spicy, spicy and hot dishes should be discarded. The diet should include cereals, soups, boiled meat and fish, vegetable and fruit dishes, dairy products.
- Ventilate the room regularly and humidify the air.
- If possible, do not go outside for three days. The body needs time to rest and recover.
- In the absence of temperature, warming procedures can be carried out.
- If the temperature is elevated, taking a bath and shower is strictly prohibited. It is enough to wipe with warm water.
Many colds are caused by a viral infection. When the patient is in acute period better to skip the workout. This will become dangerous not only for the patient himself, but also for those around him.
Exercising indoors is dangerous, as when sneezing, coughing and sweating, the patient spreads viruses. Therefore, everyone who is nearby is likely to get sick.
If it’s hard to give up sports, then it’s better not to visit gym and practice at home.
Of particular danger is influenza infection. The thing is that this disease leads to various complications in the kidneys, heart, brain. During the training process, blood circulation improves, all cells are enriched with oxygen. But if a person is infected, then the viruses will spread throughout the body.
When the first symptoms appear, it is better to consult a doctor.
