Is it suitable to exercise when you have a cold?

If you don’t pay attention in your daily life, it is easy to catch a cold. Although the common cold does not cause great harm to the human body, it will affect our daily life and work. For example, when you have a cold, your throat will hurt, and sometimes your whole body will ache, affecting your appetite and work efficiency. Some people have better physical constitutions and may not experience the above-mentioned symptoms when catching a cold, but if they do not pay attention to adjustment, it will still affect their recovery. Therefore, you should pay attention to the following points after catching a cold:

1. Exercise after a cold will add to the heat

We have all had this experience: after catching a cold, our body will have a fever and our temperature will rise. At this time, if we continue to exercise, especially strenuous exercise, it will accelerate the metabolism of muscle tissue and generate more heat.

In other words, continuing to exercise after catching a cold is like adding fuel to the fire.

2. Exercise after a cold will reduce immunity

We know that during exercise, our metabolism becomes abnormally active, which consumes a large amount of sugar, fat, and protein in our body, weakens our resistance, makes us more vulnerable to viruses, and thus aggravates the severity of our colds.

3. Exercising after a cold may trigger other illnesses

In addition, when we have a cold, our heart rate will speed up. Usually, if the body temperature does not increase by 1°C, the heart rate will increase by 10 to 20 beats per minute. When the heartbeat speeds up, the amount of blood pumped by the heart will increase significantly, thereby increasing the workload on the heart. At this time, if you continue to exercise, especially strenuous exercise, it will further increase the burden on your heart and cause acute heart failure.

The basis for judging whether to move or not

Although it is not suitable to exercise after catching a cold, if the cold is very mild or has been basically recovered, it is good for your body to participate in some exercise at this time.

Because life lies in movement, moderate exercise can improve the function of the central nervous system, promote blood and fluid circulation throughout the body, promote metabolism, and accordingly slow down the process of immune system decline, keeping you away from colds and other diseases.

Now the key question is, how to judge whether it is suitable to participate in sports when you have a cold?

In response to this, American sports medicine experts have proposed the famous "neck rule", which states that if cold symptoms only appear above the neck, such as nasal congestion and itchy throat, you can do some moderate exercise; if cold symptoms appear below the neck, such as chest tightness, weakness in the limbs, etc., you should stop exercising.