The sniffles – to train, or not to train?

No training for me this week as I’m achy, shivery, sniffly with no appetite and zero energy.  So it is a full week of rest and recovery.  Sleeping as much as possible, and making sure I’m still eating  nutrient dense natural foods  when  the appetite picks up.  Vitamin C is commonly known to help boost the immune system.   Oranges are usually the first food that spring to mind for most people.  However there are foods containing much higher amounts of vitamin C. 

Top of the list are;

 Fresh Green and Red Chillies

Guava

Bell peppers

Fresh herbs- especially Parsley and Thyme

Dark green leaves –  Kale, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Spinach.

Papayas

Oranges

Strawberries

….Whizz it all together with some fresh ginger and you have a tasty, fresh, mega remedy with a quite a kick!

As well as making sure there is an adequate intake of vitamin C, getting enough water into your system is necessary for flushing out the toxins and waste you don’t want hanging around the body. So, even more fluids than usual will help a great deal.

With regards to training, listening to your body is so important.  Especially when juggling additional work/life/kids commitments. You need to have enough energy to tackle daily routine as well as recovery.  It all depends on how poorly you feel.  If it’s just a case of a runny nose, sometimes “sweating it out” works a treat.  Whereas there have been times when I’ve walked into the gym, warmed up, struggled through the first set, re racked the weights and walked straight back out again and taken the next few days off to rest.  Being “hardcore” and trying to push through it is counter- productive. Rest is just as much a part of the puzzle as training and correct nutrition is. While you’re under the weather, any spare energy is needed to be used in fighting off virus’ so adding extra stress by training only prolongs the recovery process. 

There’s no harm in a little light, gentle exercise if you feel up to it. But  if your goal is building muscle and are used to heavy, intense sessions , it makes sense to rest up and conserve energy to fully recover so you can pick up where you left off.  The tricky part is learning to listen to the body and not the mind when it says “ Go on, just a little light session…” before you’re ready to get back into it. Which is very frustrating.

For now I’m making the most of a nice sleepy rest,  looking forward to putting the extra Christmas food to some good use over the festive period and training hard and heavy again next week!

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas!

AMBER X