What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.COM.
As you can probably tell by the sound of my voice, I don't feel so hot.
But I figured instead of bailing out on this video all together, this is actually a great
opportunity for me to get a little bit closer to the camera
so I can make sure you can hear me and cover a topic that we get asked about all the time.
And that is, 'Should I be working out if I'm sick?'
Now, I can tell you that I haven't been working out in the last few days, but it's because
of how I've been feeling.
There's no really easy answer about whether you should be working out if you're sick or
not.
Everyone deals with sickness differently.
But I can tell you that if you're dealing with lots of muscle aches, if you're dealing
with, you know, body pains, if you're dealing with a fever, if you have a respiratory infection,
I don't care if you're doing cardio or not, if you have a respiratory infection, all these
things will be things that I would say are not beneficial for you to be training.
And when I say training, I'm talking about doing actual weight training workouts because
you have to understand a good weight training workout is in itself a catabolic thing,
a breakdown, that we then allow our bodies to recover from and build back bigger and
stronger.
I can tell you right now, when your body's worried about its immunity when it's compromised
first and foremost is dealing with that.
It's not worried about you adding those next 2 or 3 pounds of muscle.
So, it's almost that the effort that you put into the gym will lead to a further breakdown,
and it certainly won't become an anabolic event for you.
So, I would say, weight training goals for sure,
you put them by the wayside if again you're dealing with those symptoms that I talked
about.
Now, different scenario here.
If you have a headache, and I'm talking about the common, average, every day headache, not
concussion headache, not meningitis headache,
not things that you should be in a hospital for, a lot of times training can actually
help you to relieve the symptoms.
The redirection of blood flow that you get to your working muscles can actually redirect
from the area in your brain that's causing the pressure of the headache
and make you feel a hell of a lot better.
Stuffy nose, runny nose, earache, again, little minor annoyances that you can probably work
your way around,.
Now that being said, if you are the guy with the runny nose, you know, this guy, doing
this in between every set and then going and grabbing the dumbbells?
For God's sake, stay home.
It doesn't mean that you have to go to the gym and stay on schedule with your workouts.
You could always do something at home for those few days that you're not feeling great
because if you're not feeling good,
the likelihood is it was the last person who went to the gym and didn't care about wiping
their nose and grabbing the dumbbells that got you sick in the first place.
So, all in all guys, this is a very individual thing, you know, and staying on schedule is
very important I know to a lot of you guys.
And we know that it's the cornerstone to our success, and on any weight training program
is to be consistent with our workouts.
But I will comfort you with this last thought, Even if you're out of the gym for a week,
you will not lose your size gains in a week.You will not lose your size gains in 2 weeks.
You probably won't even lose your size gains in 3 weeks.
Not if you've been building it over the course of a, uh,
you've been setting your foundation over the course of many, many years, have been very
consistent in the gym, a lot of times a layoff is actually a good thing for your body.
What happens is, what you see is a flattening of your muscles.
You get a glycogen depletion, you're probably not eating the same way as you did.
You're probably not drinking the same.
I couldn't even drink as much the last couple days because of my sore throat.
So, you're getting a change in the appearance of your body, but it's so quickly reversible
when you start to feel good and start eating right again,
and start, you know, doing everything else right, that it's nothing to be concerned about.
You do not lose muscle gains in 2 or 3 weeks.
If you are a strength training athlete who relies primarily on 1, 1 rep max, and 2 and
3 rep max training, you could see a faster decrease in your performance because
those are neurally driven, and neural gains will go away a little bit faster than your
actual physical gains.
But again, most of the guys found on this channel are not training that way.
They're training a little bit more for to build lean muscle.
So, again, you can be comforted in that fact; however, I will say one more time, you don't
want to throw the baby away with the bath water.
If you're not going to be training, then above all else, if your body allows you to, try
to still eat well because the longer you can continue to eat well,
then the more you're able to feel your best and you're still going to be able to, and
I'll tell you good nutrition is going to help you to bounce back faster.
But it will make it a lot easier for you to get back in the routine.
I know some guys, they start getting sick and they figure if they're not working out,
well everything should go down the shitter and they should also not be eating well too.
That's a mistake.
So, hopefully, in my convalescence here I was able to give you guys some decent advice.
You know, I don't know if my brain's thinking so clearly now, but I think it's good, decent
advice for you.
And I thought it was appropriate timing because
there's never a time when I'm going to make this video again unless I'm not feeling well,
so why not throw the camera on and let it roll.
Alright guys, I'll see you again back here soon, hopefully feeling a hell of a lot better
than I do now.