Exercise question? If I'm clearly quite sick, underslept, and still sore from Monday's class, am I going to get any particular benefit from going to class today? (Other than feeling virtuous?) Would it make more sense, health-wise, to use that time to rest and hopefully heal? Or is that just a cop-out and a way of avoiding exercise? This is actually a pretty common problem for me, as I'm sick a lot over the winter, and it really gets in the way of exercising. But maybe I should be just powering through the illness? I don't know.
To-Do:
- get kids dressed and fed and to school - x
- wash laundry curtains - x
- post blog entry about blogs (1) - x
- return annoying billing phone call - x
- request Blackboard sites for class - x
- cook and eat lunch (mackerel curry and fresh uppuma) - x
(12:00)
- return library books (and renew / get more) - x
- get milk, bread, eggs, heavy cream, sage, roast ham - x
- pick up prescriptions, NyQuil, Sudafed - x
- pick up heavier pants for Kavi - x
- stop by Loft and clarify credit amount for overpayment - x
(2:45)
- ask Kev to clean microwave and toaster oven - x
- order pizza (the squash in the fridge had gone bad, sigh) - x
- watch Parenthood while kids watch cartoons (ironic?) - x
- put away laundry - x
- feed self and kids dinner - x
(5:30)
- post blog entry about renovation -- insulation - x
- re-read Charles Baxter's The Business of Memory and decide which essays I'm teaching, marking up for lecture notes as I go -- in progress
- record more lullabies (with me singing) for Kavi's SweetPea MP3 player -- in progress
Probably rolling over to Th:
- schedule grant recipient meeting
- figure out web page access for ASAM
- revise book two proposal and send to Bob
- start draft of book three proposal
- photocopy pages, write letter, send IRS amended return
- sweep kitchen, baths, and kids' rooms
- mop kitchen and bath
- scrub teakettle
- return Kevin's present that doesn't fit (shoes from Lands' End)
- return Kevin's present that was shipped in a ladies' size instead of men (texting gloves)
- wrap and drop off Samanthi's present if she's available
- post blog entry on blogs - 2 (the narrowed down list, request for specific suggestions)
- do a serious winnow on out-of-date e-mails in Inbox
- get e-mail down to 200
Yes, there is a benefit to going. The reason a person gets sore is because they are not accustomed to using certain muscles. If you keep taking class your muscles build strength and over time soreness will diminish. Also if you are mildly ill, getting the circulation going is a good thing. But if you are really really sick and beyond general soreness you have actually injured something, stay home.
I haven’t injured anything, and it’s not the soreness I’m worried about. I’m used to working through sore.
It’s more that normally for the kind of sick I have (bad winter cold, hacking cough), I would aim for resting and drinking lots of fluids to try to get better.
Exercise seems directly in opposition to resting, you know?
The rule I’ve heard is no exercise if the sickness is “below the neck”, which yours sounds like. However, I seem to get a winter cough that lasts all winter, most winters. So resting doesn’t seem to do much good. I decided this year to try asthma medication, and it seems to be helping a lot. It’s amazing how much faster I can run when I can breathe. I do have Hashimoto’s hypothyroid, and I think there may be a connection to asthma (autoimmune or adrenal function or something).
What I have done in that situation in the past is go to the gym anyway and attempt the work out. Most of the time, I am surprised and have a great workout and feel better. At some times, I would step on the treadmill or whatever and go for a couple of minutes and just know I was not going to make it through, and pack up and go home. So I tell myself if I can’t hack it after five minutes, I’m going home to rest.
Nowadays, I practice bikram yoga, which is hatha yoga in a 105 degree room. It’s been 2.75 years and I have not had a bona fide cold since then. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Whenever I feel a cold start to come on–tickly throat, sinus stuff, fatigue, whatever–I head in to class and the whatever-it-is is gone immediately after. Because it’s yoga, if I’m not feeling well, I can just lay on my mat–for the whole 90 minutes, if necessary, and it’s like a nice sauna session. Because of this, I’m a big believer in keeping warm and listening to your body. So whatever you do, stay warm! Hot tea sounds great, and I hope you feel better soon.
Sorry, 1.75 years. Truth in advertising!
I have only one data point: a couple years ago, I was nearing the end of a cold, and I decided to ride my bike to work even though I wasn’t feeling entirely well yet.
By the time I got to work, I was coughing heavily. And that cough lingered for another week or so.
The lesson that I took away from this is that aerobic exercise can make an irritated throat significantly worse. But I made that up; I don’t have any other evidence for it, and I never asked anyone about it. So it may just have been a fluke that I overgeneralized from.