Should I workout when I have a cold?

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This is a question that I think we’ve all asked once or twice in our lives and unfortunately, there’s no definitive answer. A good rule of thumb has always been, “Feed a cold. Starve a virus.” Meaning that if you have a cold, you want to try and eat some chicken soup or something to nurse yourself back to health. Of course, with a virus the opposite is true. You don’t want to feed that virus and give it a chance to spread further, you want to starve it out and let it run its path.

When it comes to determining whether you should workout while you’re sick or have a cold, a lot of it comes down to understanding your body. Understanding your body comes in time as you workout more and more, you’ll just naturally know if your body is up to a full-on workout, maybe its only ready for a quick jog, but it might tell you to just sit out for a couple of days.

The answer to this question really just comes with time. If you’re on a regular workout routine, then you’ll start to see how your body responds to varying temperatures, illnesses, workout patterns, etc. Keep a workout journal, if it helps you, and document what your body does in response to each workout. That way you will have a written record that you can reference in the future. Once you get to know your body, it will tell you whether or not your up for a workout while you’ve got a cold.

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