i don't exercise while ill with the exception of my full-time job with children, raising my own kids, and housewifely jobs around our home

with my body, if i stress it out farther with exercise during an illness (even in the recovery time of antibiotics) it will turn into something else...for example, a mild cold will rapidly turn into pneumonia, which has landed me in the emergency room before....that particular time, i thought "oh i'll just boost my body with a light jog" and went jogging while having a cold...it went downhill from there and ended up not being able to hardly breathe within a week...my DH MADE me to go the ER and my lungs had filled up with fluid

so i know that about my own body...however, others aren't like that...some people's bodies may respond favorably to a little "kick in the butt" while sick or recovering...i'm sure others will chime in with different experiences

but that's my experience and how i learned that exercise while sick is just not a great idea for my own body

I am experiencing a harsh reminder this week that my body is still recovering. I had a baby 11 weeks ago by emergency c-section and 10 weeks ago was back in the hospital for 5 days with severe pneumonia and pleurisy.

Anyways I have a cold this week- usually I maybe get a runny nose for a couple days paired with a sore throat for a day. This cold has knocked the wind out of my lungs- literally. There is just absolutely no way I'm exercising in this condition, along with the usual caring for my kids, etc.

I am recovering from a cold right now....started feeling bad on Sunday and ended up taking off half a day from work on Monday and the whole day on Tuesday. I did about 40 minutes of step aerobics Monday morning and this morning. Both times, it kinda made me feel better...moreso today. I was actually able to breathe through my nose while I was exercising. There's not way I could have exercised on Tuesday or Wednesday because I was still physically weak.

if you have a hard time breathing with a cold...and you already had pneumonia once not long ago...are you sure it's not a relapse of pneumonia?

i'm just SO paranoid about that now since i've had several bad cases of pneumonia...i also have asthma so i have to be really careful of my lungs...despite the fact that i've never been exposed to a great deal of secondhand anything and have NEVER ever smoked anything, not a cig, not a puff of marijuana, nothing

I am pretty sure it's just a junky cold. With my pneumonia, it wasn't productive at all, the fluid in the lung plus the swelling from the pleurisy caused severe pain with every breath I took. So I was literally gasping for air for 3 days until finally a nurse took pity on me and actually got my pain under control instead of just taking the edge off for a few hours at a time. But it was never productive, like I assumed it would be with pneumonia- I didn't have a cough because I couldn't breathe deeply enough- they ended up draining the fluid with a needle and took out over a liter of fluid! Anyways, this is different, but I find when the junky stuff gets caught and I have to breathe "around", if that makes any sense, that's when I feel breathless because I'm getting less air.

I don't know what I'd do if I had a relapse of the pneumonia. It was so scary to be that sick, especially just after an emergency section... I did have 2 follow-up xrays, the last was about 4 weeks after I was discharged from the hospital, and it showed that the fluid was completely gone!

Depends what kind of illness it is.

I've been suffering with a mild dose of flu for the last month/6 weeks and while it hasn't been enough to knock me off my feet it has been a nuisance. I try to listen to my body, if I need a rest day or two then I take it, otherwise if I feel ok then I 'proceed with caution' and try not to overdo it (although the temptation is always there).

Anything bad enough to warrant a trip to the docs or medication then I'd give myself as much time as necessary (sometimes a week or maybe even two without exercising or with only very mild forms of exercise).

I take rest days when I'm sick, but if I have a cold, I continue exercising. Exercise tends to alleviate cold symptoms, and I actually feel much better for the duration of my cold if I continue exercising than if I stop altogether.

It's a great way to make my nose run when the pseudophedrine just ain't cuttin' it.

I made the mistake of going jogging last night thinking I would feel better....this morning my throat is swollen and I'm super sick....so I now know that tlc is the best option

Ditto! If I have aches/fever I'll rest, but if it's just a cold, I'll keep going. I'll pretty much do anything before I take medication and exercising always makes me feel better!

This is a great thread- I always wondered about exercising while sick. I'd heard you're not supposed to exercise even when you just have a cold, but I'd always felt like I could. I'm glad to see some of you have done so with no dire consequences!