Weight training and immune system during pandemic

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
1

Heard a podcast interview with an MD (Dr. Aris Lavranos) who asserted that people should avoid intense weight training right now because recovery from intense workouts and building muscle taxes your immune system that needs to be strong as possible during the current Covid 19 pandemic.

This sounds like total BS to me, except perhaps in some extreme over-training scenario. Can the MDs of Barbell Medicine confirm that this is BS?

2

If people are adapted to handing intense weight training (i.e., they already do it on a regular basis), we see no reason to stop doing it.

The benefits of exercise far outweigh the risks in this situation – it’s a matter of reasonable programming. Going from sedentary to training 2x per day for an IronMan would be unwise, for example.

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