Total Body Transformation Training Blog

Training during cold and flu season

Traing in any activity is not a series of steady progressions, especially once you get some experience under your belt. The body just cannot continue to make improvements week after week with no limit in site. Periodization refers to the deliberate structuring of a training program to design in "easier period" with "harder periods". Periodization was formally studied and made into a science by the Bulgarian and Romanian olympic coaches training athletes during the height of the Soviet Union.

While there can be very complicated perdioization strategies, simple methods work surprisingly well. For weight training and endurance sports a sample period would be 12-16 workouts of continual focus on progress culminating in the final workout being at or better than the previous "personal record". Now a period of active recovery comes in -- 12-16 workouts at much less intensity and overall load. This backing off period lets the body heal in preparation for another cycle of acheivement.

I just finished a periodization phase last week and it was coupled with a growing feeling of being run down and sick. In the northeast it is cold and flu season so this wasn't exactly surprising. By Sunday I had a sore throat and difficulty breathing. The general viewpoint is that if sickness is contained "in the head" it is ok to workout. Any form of whole body sickness though needs rest. This can be difficult to determine if your workouts are normally taxing and require all out effort. The best non-medical advice would be to reduce your intensity and listen to your body. If you feel achy and have less strength while showing signs of sickness then it is time to stop the all out efforts and back off. The body needs time to heal and the more it is pushed the more it will repond by shutting down.

At the end of my periodization cycle last week I was supposed to train hard on Saturday and take Sunday off. Not feeling well and being exhausted from Friday's workout I let Saturday be a day of rest and went back to working out on Sunday with a reduced amount of work and intensity with plenty of rest between sets. It was easy to tell I was taxing myself a little too much -- on the treadmill during my walk/run I saw my heart rate go up and up much quicker than normal. Backing off on the speed and incline and time allowed me to have a reasonable workout for my body and let it move while getting plenty of time to recover.