When to return to exercise after the flu

When it comes to being sick, everyone wants a speedy recovery, but it can be difficult to tell when to get back into exercise after taking a few days off.

The recommendations about when to return to exercise after the flu and other respiratory illnesses are quite vague.
The main reason is everyone’s symptoms and severity of illness is so variable.

Firstly, you need to gauge the severity of your symptoms, if you have minor symptoms such as sneezing, a mild cough or a stuffy nose, you can resume moderate exercise (breaking a mild sweat or mild breathing), however it is a good idea to reduce your workout to half of what you’d normally do to ease back into it.
If your symptoms are still quite severe and you’re experiencing fever, nausea or diarrhoea, then you need to continue to rest (and see your GP).

Use how you feel after your first session back to gauge your next one. If you recovered well and are not too tired, you can increase how much you do during your next session.
However, if you are exhausted, then you went too hard in the first session back.

As you continue to get back into exercise, gradually build up your intensity and duration over the next week or two, leading back into what you were doing prior to being sick.
A good system to follow is to increase by 10% each week, until you are back up to what you’ normally do. This is also a good system to follow to increase your exercise once you are back to your regular routine!

Do you have any questions?

• Call us on (03) 9857 0644 or (07) 3505 1494 (Paddington)
• Email us at admin@mdhealth.com.au
• Check out our other blog posts here

Our clinical staff would be happy to have chat if you have any questions.