Don’t work out when you’re ill!
Let me take you back to the winter of 2016. “Can you work out when sick?” I typed into the search bar on my family tablet. I was ill, full of cold with a runny nose and headache and general exhaustion. I scanned articles on fitness websites and running pages searching for my answer. I couldn’t miss a workout- that was not allowed. I found a number of competing claims on exercising whilst ill but the general consensus appeared to be that if your symptoms were above the neck you could train.
So I trained- whilst ill- and surprise surprise I got sicker. Whilst most colds would be gone in a week this one persisted for a month. I felt terrible, miserable, my school work suffered. With numerous bugs and viruses in the years that followed I insisted on training because the fitness gods that be had declared that “well, working out could actually help you get better because-”. But working out never helped me get better, it always made me worse, because I was using up the valuable energy that my body needed to make me better on reps and laps.
I’m ashamed to admit that even post recovery, when I am supposedly better, I have still exercised whilst ill. I have given in to the ingrained ruling in my brain that states I must work out no matter what. The most recent time this happened was no less than a few months ago. I felt tired, woozy, almost faint. All I wanted was to go home and take a nap. But instead I trained. The next day I woke up with a raging fever, aches and pains throughout my body. I couldn’t stand up without fainting and my tonsils were inflamed. Luckily it wasn’t corona but it so easily could have been.
I didn’t recover from this illness for a good few weeks afterwards because every time I began to feel better I took that as a sign that it was safe to train and made myself ill again. And I know that a few people reading this right now are probably judging me- how could I be so stupid? Especially with the pandemic? How selfish? How reckless?
I agree with this judgement. But when the ghost of an ED is still haunting the depths of your mind, logic and basic intuition have less power. Sure, someone who has always had a healthy relationship with exercise and their body would know if they were well enough to work out- but for someone who has or is suffering from an eating disorder or an exercise addiction, that logical perception is often skewed.
So if this post applies to you- please, please skip your workout when you’re ill or tired. I don’t care if your symptoms are above the neck- rest up and you can get better quicker. Take the running trainers off. Get under a blanket. Grab a cup of tea. I am giving you permission to skip your workout and rest. Because honestly, I half wrote this post in the hopes that the next time someone searches “should I work out when sick?” they find this post instead and relax and get healthy rather than training and making themselves sicker.
And the next time you get ill and consider working out- come back to this post, read it again. And skip the damn workout.