When you wake up one more morning, your head is pounding, you feel a scratch in your throat, and your body feels like it’s ignoring the instructions your brain is telling it to move, thoughts of skipping your workout likely run through your head.
You might wonder whether you’re better off skipping your workout altogether, or if you should push through it and do your best to train anyway.
This is a common question, especially among those that are really dedicated to their workouts as for them, skipping a workout is usually not an option.
But, when is it going to do more harm than good? That’s what you need to really assess before stepping foot in the gym.
Check Your Symptoms
First, take some time to check your symptoms carefully. Are they just above the neck? If so, you’re likely okay to train. That tends to be the general rule to follow; “Neck down and you should stay put in your bed, neck up and exercising now becomes an option.
Check Balance
Next, you’ll also want to look at your balance. If you can get out of bed and don’t feel wobbly or woozy, again, exercising is an option.
Even if symptoms are mostly neck up but you do feel off balanced though, then you definitely should not proceed to your workouts. Since a small error in body misplacement when lifting weights could cause significant injury, this is not something you want to ‘test’.
If balance is off, take a rest.
How Long Has The Cold Persisted?
Next, assess how long you’ve been feeling under the weather. If it’s been nagging at you for a week, it might be best to just lay off the workouts for a day or two.
Obviously your body is struggling to get rid of it, so putting more stress on your system through your workouts will definitely make it harder.
On the whole, you really need to consider your goals also. If you aren’t participating in any type of competitive sports where you have an event/game coming up, or you aren’t really trying to strip off that body fat as soon as possible for some type of reunion or special event, time off is often best.
Ask yourself, what’s better.
One week working out at 75% or two or three days off and four days at 100%.
Training at 100% will always beat out half-effort workouts, so this answer is relatively easy.
Finally, do keep in mind though that at times, when it’s just a head cold, actually getting up and moving around (aka, a simple walk, an easy bike ride, etc) can help get the blood flowing and help you get better.
You just have to watch intensity levels to be sure you don’t sacrifice recovery.
So, be sure you’re keeping these points in mind as you go about the cold season. With any luck, you’ll take preventative measures so you don’t wake up with a cold in the first place.
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