Hey everyone, just stopping by to ask a question.
Can you actually get sick if you don't stick to your exercise routine?
According to WebMD, yes (well, sorta)...
Exercise When You Have a Cold
If you want to prevent getting colds this season, then regular, moderate exercise may be just what the doctor ordered. Findings show that exercise helps your immune system fight simple infections like colds and flu. Exercise also helps ward off the big stuff like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, and cancer.
Yet what about exercising when you have a cold? Is it still safe?
Exercise and prevention of colds
Exercise and physical activities are important parts of a personal action plan to stay healthy and prevent chronic illness. Regular exercise allows you to improve your overall fitness, which can help to boost your immune system -- the body's defense against infections.
Regular exercise appears to have the advantage of being able to jump-start the immune system, and that can help reduce the number of colds you get. With exercise, the number and aggressiveness of certain immune cells, such as the ones called natural killer cells, increase by as much as 50 to 300 percent. If you exercise regularly, this temporary increase can help make the immune system more efficient at destroying intruders that cause illness such as colds.
Some findings report that moderate intensity exercise -- daily 20 to 30 minute walks, going to the gym every other day, or biking with kids a few times a week -- may reduce the number of colds you get.
In one study reported in the American Journal of Medicine, women who walked for a half-hour every day for one year had half the number of colds as women who did not exercise. In this study, researchers associated regular walking with increasing levels of infection-fighting white blood cells. In another study, researchers found that the number of T-cells -- a specific type of white blood cell -- in 65-year-olds who exercised regularly was as high as those of people in their 30s.
http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/cold-guide/exercise-when-you-have-cold