a winter bug. They imagine that all the
hard training and healthy eating will
turn me into some sort of superhuman
who’s immune to illness.
But the reality is everyone gets
infections at one time or another, in
fact the average adult suffers between
two and four upper respiratory tract
infections every year (BASES) .
On top of this, the amount and
type of exercise we do actually affects
how susceptible we are to respiratory
tract infections: Depending on how
intensely you train and how long
the session lasts, a single training
session can leave your immune
system depressed for between 3 -24
hours afterwards (BASES) , particularly
if you are performing the sessions
‘fasted’ (without food intake) (GLEESON) .
During this 3-24 hour period whilst
your defences are low you are more
vulnerable. So in fact, periods of
hard training will leave you more
susceptible to infections than someone
who only trains moderately (BASES) .
With such a huge investment resting
on keeping ourselves healthy enough
to be able to train, coupled with the
irony that hard training makes us
going well and you’re feeling like those
goals you set yourself are totally within
reach if you can just keep consistently
putting in the work and progressing
through the plan. Maybe you’re deep
into your off season, or maybe you’re
a matter of days away from a major
event in your calendar… and then…
… you get hit with a bug; you know
the one; it’s been knocking people
around you for six for weeks but you’ve
managed to avoid it… until now.
Be it a cough/cold or even worse the
dreaded flu, you’re not getting to the
gym, track or practice fields anytime
soon. Respiratory tract infections
(RTIs) are easily spread, so even if
you did manage to drag yourself to
training, you’d be treated like you
have the plague. And there’s definitely
nothing to be gained from forcing
yourself to train when you’re unwell.
No one wants to get ill and when
you have invested so much time,
money, physical and emotional effort
in your fitness journey it can feel
devastating. Not only do you feel like
death warmed up, but with each day
you are sick you are now slipping
further away from your goals. Once
you are well enough to get back
training you’re going to have to take a
step back to rebuild what you’ve lost
from the time out. If your goals are
time sensitive then catching a bug at
the wrong time could spell disaster for
your next competition, tournament, or
charity challenge event and perhaps
even have a knock-on affect for the
entire season.
“But you spend so much time
training, I thought you were
super healthy?”
I’ve heard this so many times from
employers and colleagues when I catch
MARCH 2018 / MUSCLE & FITNESS
93