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Butcher's Dog! Regular
outdoor fitness tips from the canine on creatine. Cold wet
nose and glossy coat guaranteed.
Been Sick? Take It
Easy!
There's a been a lot of viral horror
around - colds, flu and that thing that budgies get - and
it's pretty frustrating, but once you're over the worst of
it, how soon can you get back into training, walking and
climbing?
Don't Panic...
First, don't panic and think that a week
or two off is going to destroy your fitness. It's now
generally accepted that a week of inactivity will have
virtually no effect on your overall fitness and, if you have
a good fitness base behind you from regular walking or
running, then even a couple of weeks off, won't have a
significant impact, so don't get over pressurised and get
back to the outdoors before you're really ready.
How Do You Know You're
Ready?
Listen to your body - do you feel good,
tired, still ill? If you take your resting pulse regularly,
and it's higher than normal, then the chances are that
you're still not fully over whatever it is you've had. Give
yourself another few days and be cautious, wait for your
heart rate to drop back to normal. Better to spend a day
more inactive then take a big step backwards.
Start Gently...
The danger of getting back too soon and
too hard is that you'll either relapse into another bout of
illness or injure muscles and joints that haven't recovered
their full strength. Your muscle fibres will have weakened
as will your heart, so for the first few outings, whether
walking, running or biking, keep the intensity low and build
up from short outings back towards full length
epics.
Don't be tempted to go screaming hard up
hills or sprint because it's pushing your heart rate up
that's going to stress your system more overall and raise
the risk of a relapse. If you're a runner, more impact means
more damage and longer recovery, so, again, keep it
steady.
Bae Fitness
If you've exercised regularly ove the
years, you'll lose fitness more slowly than someone will a
shorter term fitness base. That should give you confidence
if you have a long term fitness reservoir, or, if you
haven't, caution you to take things slowly and not expect too
much.
Rest and Feed
Obviously you eat well and keep hydrated
anyway, erm, don't you? But it's particularly important when
you've been off for a while. The same's true of rest and
recovery. It's tempting to try and make up for your time off
by doing more than you would, but it's more important to
give your body the chance to recover properly after exercise
sessions - take rest days.
Overall
Chances are that you'll be raring to go,
but it's better to take an extra day off before training
again and make sure you're reallly better and ease back into
it. Don't push your heart and lungs hard to start with,
instead keep at the sort of pace where you can have an easy
conversation without gasping pathetically.
Make the first few walks or sessions back
short and gentle and listen to your body. If you feel tired,
don't be afraid to shorten your walk or even cancel all
together and schedule in more rest days than normal.
Finally, remember it's not just your heart and lung fitness
that will have suffered, your mucles will be weaker too, so
be wary of hauling out a big heavy pack or activities that
produce jolting, damaging impacts, like running downhill or
sprinting on hard surfaces.
Remember, your brain remembers how your
body felt before you were ill and may be writing cheques
that in your weakened, post-illness state, your body can't
cash - it's better to realise that than go overdrawn and
back into the nastiness of renewed illness. Just increase
your training steadily and before long you'll be back to
where you were before. Good luck.
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