first of all I would like to thank you for the great content you people are putting out regularly. I really enjoy listening to all of your podcasts on Youtube, reading your monthly newsletter and forum posts.
I noticed that there is one topic which seems to be of particular interest for many people, me included, namely training while having a common cold, sinus infection, tonsillitis, otitis media etc. I know that you advice for training but no matter where you read elswhere everyone (including health professionals) advices strictly against training. Common knowledge is that training while beeing sick will hinder recovery, make the symptoms worse or even increase the ristk of cachting myocarditis. There a tons of reports (also in medical forums) from people who allegedly died from myocarditis resulting from an abducted cold. I wonder if those rumors are completely without origin and if so why are they so widely spread?
I know you guys are bussy as hell but I would really be looking forward to you making an educational video about this topic (like you did about NSAIDs and antibiotics/fluorquinolones). Is something like this on your todo list or do you consider this topic for too irrelevant for some reason?
We advise training if you feel up to training, and if training is important enough to you that you’re actually considering it.
“Common knowledge”, as usual, needs to provide supporting evidence for those claims. Symptom severity is a highly subjective thing and is therefore subject to psychosocial influences (including nocebo from things you read and hear elsewhere.
And yes, viral infections can certainly cause myocarditis. It’s a rare, but very unfortunate complication that can result in heart failure (sometimes reversible, sometimes not) and sudden cardiac death. There is no evidence to suggest that training has any impact on this risk, and I don’t think this should factor into your decisions.
this has also been a problem I keep having to deal with. I often get a cold after hard training weeks and I don’t feel up to training. When I do “push through” my symptoms have always gotten worse. Then it’s hard to decide when the cold is over and when training can begin again. I guess I’ve always wondered if hypertrophy training “steals” resources from my body and prolongs the cold recovery process. Is there any evidence that exercise/lifting can prolong a cold recovery?
I think it’s hard to know for sure if you’re truly “getting a cold” (i.e. an acuteviral infection) or if you just have similar symptoms related to fatigue. This may very well be a programming issue.
There’s no evidence that I’m aware of on the matter.
Austin, is there any evidence the other way around? That the recovery from whatever illness you have “steals” energie that negatively affects your training recovery/adaption?