The One Activity an Infectious Disease Expert Is Begging You To Avoid When You Start Feeling Sick ...Saudi Arabia

No one wants to get sick. As a kid, at least coming down with a virus meant spending a day on the couch watching TV instead of going to school. But as an adult, life’s demands don’t just stop when you’re not feeling well. There are still deadlines to meet and kids’ lunches to pack. 

With so much going on (why is it that there’s never a good time to get sick?), it’s tempting to push through an illness instead of rest, trying to keep with your normal routine as much as possible. According to one scientific study, 94% of surveyed ill employees went to work while sick and 8% vomited while at work. (As if you needed another reminder to get your flu shot, right?)

It’s worth emphasizing that if you’re feeling sick, you should rest at home instead of going to work. This will prevent others from getting sick and help you heal faster. But there’s something else an infectious disease doctor wants people to never do when they’re starting to get sick.

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When you’re feeling under the weather, one question you may ask yourself is whether or not you should still work out. On the one hand, exercise has been shown to boost immunity and help the body fight infection. On the other hand, you probably feel more fatigued and weak than you normally do.

According to Dr. Brian Labus, PhD, MPH, REHS, an infectious disease epidemiologist and professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, whether or not you should work out when you’re sick depends on the type of illness you have. If it’s just a slight head cold, he says that working out probably won’t do much harm. But if it’s a stomach virus or upper respiratory infection, he warns against it. 

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“If you have a serious respiratory illness, you’re going to have trouble breathing to begin with. Even if it’s just a cough, something is happening that’s hurting your lungs. Working out on top of that can be very taxing on the body and make it harder to recover from the illness,” Dr. Labus says.  

In addition to taxing the body, he explains that working out leads to losing fluid through sweat, which is the opposite of what the body needs when you’re sick. This is another reason it can take longer to bounce back if you push through a hard workout when you’re feeling under the weather. He emphasizes that it’s an absolute myth that you can “sweat out an illness.” “The virus or bacteria that’s making you sick doesn’t care about sweating,” he says.

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Not only does working out when you have an upper respiratory infection (such as COVID, the flu, RSV, strep throat or the common cold), mean it will likely take you longer to recover, it also puts others around you at risk. “When you’re working out, you’re breathing heavily. Breathing heavily puts a lot more of the virus into the air, which puts others at risk,” Dr. Labus says.

If you absolutely must work out even though you’re sick, he recommends exerting yourself less than you normally do and to work out outside, away from other people. This can look like going for a walk around the block or moving through a gentle yoga flow in your yard.

Related: Headed Back to the Gym? Doctors Are Urging You To Avoid These Gross Habits

How To Know When You Can Start Working Out Again

Instead of trying to work or work out when you’re sick, Dr. Labus recommends focusing on resting and hydrating. This, he says, is the best way to take care of your immune system. 

In terms of how to know when you’ve recovered from your illness enough that you can start working out again, Dr. Labus stresses that it depends on the type of illness you have and how severe your symptoms are. “A head cold typically lasts a couple of days, but the flu can last up to a week,” he explains.

He adds that there isn’t one hard and fast rule about when to start working out again after being sick. “Every person is unique and every [illness] is unique,” he tells Parade. For example, an adult who is young or middle-aged and in good health may recover faster than an elderly adult or someone with an underlying illness. 

Since everyone is different, Dr. Labus recommends listening to your body and acting accordingly. When you do feel ready to work out again, he recommends easing into it instead of doing an intense workout on your first day back.

Working out regularly is a great habit to have and benefits the body in a myriad of ways, but that doesn’t mean you should push through when you’re sick. Taking a few days off will help you recover faster and is the best way to care for your body.

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Hence then, the article about the one activity an infectious disease expert is begging you to avoid when you start feeling sick was published today ( Sunday 19/10/2025 - 09:42 PM ) and is available on Parade ( Saudi Arabia ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.

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