Should you exercise with a Cold??

Ok its that time of year again and my kids have shared with me their cold. Well I just started my third week of the 90 Day Challenge. I made mine a physical challenge which means I work out everyday but Sunday. So the question becomes should you work or not? The lazy part of me is like lets skip but the other part of me says you have been doing good if you stop now you might not start again. So what do the expert says.

Researching this was pretty easy and found a article on Web MD here are the highlights:
First thing it goes into is how exercise is good to prevent chronic illness (on this I feel cheated I mean really I have been working out for two weeks that counts right?). Regular exercise is known to jump start your immune system. With exercise the number of aggressive cells (the ones that fight illness) increase by 50-300%.

This did not have to be hard core exerecise but even just walking regularly could increase your white blood cell count. The study compared women their 60's who walked at least 30 minurtes regularly to women in there 30's. White blood cell count for the active women were the same as those 30 years younger.

Now the question comes in "Should you exercise with a cold?" A majority of the time it usually is according to the article, as long as you listen to your body. If you do a very intesnse workout you need to make sure you give your body enough time to rest between workouts. Now if you suffer from asthma and have a cold you should definetly talk to your doctor.

If you are taking cold medicine you may cause your heart to work really hard so this again is a listen to your body. I dont usually take cold medicine so I can't use this excuse but if you are you may want to think about lowering intensity based on how your body feels.

So I am still working out but I have lessen the intensity a little by slowling the pace and taking more water breaks as needed. I hope this helps.
http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/cold-guide/exercise-when-you-have-cold

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