Should You Workout When You Are Sick?

The season of sickness is upon us! 

A few weeks ago I was taking attendance in the weightroom and I noticed a bunch of kids were missing. One day was 3, the next was 7, and by the end of the week, 12 kids missed training. Keep in mind I coach a pretty small team. Depending on the time of year, we only have about 25-35 kids training in the weightroom. At the end of the week, I was grateful to have avoided getting any of these illnesses that are floating around.

During this time, I spent my mornings getting up early and getting to work. My schedule at the gym is undergoing a change and it has required a lot of work. Between reading, planning the schedule, preparing the training plan, getting the software up and running, and then physically having to go to work and train people, I was working a lot! As the week went on, each morning was getting a little tougher to get out of bed. When the alarm went off, I was not as excited to get out of bed as I was previously. This carried over to the rest of the day. Instead of taking a day to rest and relax, I kept pushing through. Guess what happened next? 

The chills hit me hard one night. It was five hours of teeth chattering shivering. It was awful. The illness lingered for 4-5 days but the worst of it only lasted a few hours. That, I am grateful for. As I think back, I wonder if all of this could have been avoided if I just would have slowed down and relaxed when my body was telling me to. I felt this thing coming on but I did not heed the warning. Because of that, I ended up getting sick. It seems that I need to learn this lesson every so often to remind myself to take care of me. This illness brought on a peace of mind that I previously did not have. I took a few days off from working out. I relaxed. I napped. I spent time with our animals and I even took a rare day off to get a massage and spend time with my valentine. It turned out to be a pretty relaxing week. My mind and body definitely appreciate it!

Use this tale as a lesson. If you don't listen to your body when it is telling you to slow down, you may end up shivering your way through the night. I ended up getting most of the work done that I needed to. I get set up with a new software company (check us out on the Mindbody app, we have an awesome special going), we have a new training schedule (check it out by clicking here) and we were able to meet some new people that came in to check out some of the training opportunities that are now offered. It turned out to be a solid week. So take some time off when you need it and enjoy your time here while you have it!

I hope you all have a great weekend!
Chris Fluck

---