PODCAST - I Worked Out All Week While Sick — Here’s What Really Happened
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Athlete with Asthma Show. I'm your host Johnny Ha, an ultra runner endurance athlete, and yes, a guy who's had an inhaler prescribed since birth. Despite doctors telling me I could never play soccer nor run a marathon, let alone a hundred K ultra. I prove them all wrong. This show is where I share everything I've learned from breathing techniques to mindset shifts to help you become the athlete and the person you truly want to be.
So if you're ready to achieve your goals, despite limitations, let's get started.
Most people stop training the second they feel a cold coming on. While this past week I did the opposite, [00:01:00] and today ~on the show ~I'm gonna share with you ~exactly ~what happened. Now if you don't know already, exercise is the best thing ~that ~you can do for your body ~in your life. It has shown that having a consistent workout routine results in~
~can decrease all cause mortality rates can decrease all cause mortality can. It is shown that a consistent workout routine can't. Okay. It has shown that ~a consistent workout routine reduces all cause mortality rates by 35%. Dr. Peter Attia, the author of Outlive, says ~that ~if there was a silver bullet in medicine, this would be it.
So if working out has this big of an impact on all cause mortality, once you think. That at least working out a little bit while you're sick would have a positive effect. Well, this past week, these are the three biggest benefits ~that ~I saw ~in my life ~because I chose to work out every ~single ~day while ~being ~sick.
The first one is. My energy levels, my energy levels went from not even feeling like [00:02:00] getting outta bed in the morning to putting my running shoes on, grabbing my dog, and going out for a short one to two mile run. Completely changing the trajectory of my day.
My energy levels went from, at best, a three ~all the way up ~to a seven or an eight. ~Elevating me to ~elevating me throughout my day. Now, by the time nighttime came around, we all know that when we're sick, at least for me, I tend to feel worse ~at night. ~My energy levels did dip, ~but. Uh, ~but without ~having any ~coffee ~or anything else, ~just by working out in the morning, I elevated my energy levels ~and ~by the end of the week, I went from dragging myself outta bed to feeling completely normal.
Number two,
the severity of my illness.
I never felt terrible and my sickness didn't get worse. There was definitely a low point from the standpoint of like the worst day of feeling sick, but even on that day, I was able to get [00:03:00] out there and run, and ~I ~felt immediately better after.
'cause I'm sending oxygen into my body. I'm oxygenating my brain. I'm oxygenating the parts of my body that need to heal while being sick. When you work out, you're decreasing inflammation in your body. You're elevating your mood, you're busting those stress hormones by creating endorphins. So my illness severity stayed in check.
~Now, ~I'm not saying ~that ~if you have pneumonia, you should get outside and take a run. What I am saying is if you are feeling sick, instead of being like, oh my God, I probably shouldn't work out, still work out. Just do ~a little ~less. ~Go ~take a walk, ~do something to ~get your body moving because when you work out, you are supporting your immune system and ~your immune ~response to illness. Number three,
strength gains. You know that when you get sick or when you travel or you make some other excuse to not work out for a week, two [00:04:00] weeks, three weeks, a month, whatever. And you get back into it and you have either lost what you gained before or the very least, you've lost momentum.
Well, because I decided to work out the entire week ~that ~I was sick. By the end ~of it, ~I was ~actually ~lifting heavier than ~I was ~before, so what's the takeaway? Get sick and lift. No. The point is, instead of losing what I had built, ~I the point is instead of losing what I have built with my lifting routine, instead of just holding on to what I built with my lifting routine, because I kept going, I, ~because I kept going.
I saw gains even though. I was sick. I would've been happy ~with ~just maintaining ~the ~strength ~that I already had. But since I took it relatively easy, but I still integrated a powerful lifting experience into, but I still integrated, ~but I still stuck to my lifting and ~my ~workout routine. ~I, I was able to,~
~I was able to see gains. Yeah. I don't know. I'm just fucking,~
~I was able, ~I was able to continue building muscle while being sick. So why is this important? Well, when you even lightly move, , you are boosting your lymphatic flow and immune response to help.
Protect you and help you fight off illness. You're [00:05:00] also creating endorphins that regulate stress and inflammation in your body. The less stress, the less inflammation ~in your body, ~the healthier you are overall, ~and the more and the more resistant ~and the more resilient you are to illness. When you work out, especially if you breathe like I do with very powerful inhales and exhales,
you'll be boosting oxygen in your body even when you're congested. And that is one of the biggest things in general when you're sick, is being congested sucks and being congested when you have asthma sucks even more.
~So ~when you integrate breath work into your routine when you're sick. ~And ~the easiest way ~to do this. ~Is by forcing yourself ~to have ~to breathe and do that breath work. With light exercise, you are bringing more oxygen to your body. You're alleviating the feelings on congestion and overall you feel better, faster. now remember, I'm not a doctor and I'm not a scientist. I'm just an athlete with asthma who teaches from ~his ~experience ~and that's why my and that bring, and that's why. Hmm.~
~And that's why I have a, and that's why I have a disclaimer in the description below if you're, and that's why I have a disclaimer in the description, if you were, ~and that's why I have a disclaimer in the description below on YouTube or in the show [00:06:00] notes, if you're listening ~to this ~as a podcast, ~to check with your healthcare professional, to make sure you check with your healthcare professional, with whatever you end up doing in your life, okay?~
~For you to check with your healthcare professional, for you to check with your healthcare professional. For you ~to check with your healthcare professional.
Hey, friend, I wanted to take a moment to ask you a quick question. Are you struggling to lose weight due to your asthma? If so, I get it. I used to run marathons and still kept gaining weight. It wasn't until I learned about the three pillars of healthy living that everything changed,
so I put together a healthy living guide that you can access absolutely free by clicking the link in the description. This guide shares these amazing three pillars of healthy living that you can easily integrate into your life. To [00:07:00] start losing weight and live healthier today. Click the link in the description or go to athlete with asthma.com/healthy-living-guide to grab your free copy.
Now let's get back to the rest of the show.
Now, the last thing I wanna share with you is throughout the years I have learned the importance of recovery while training, and this includes recovery while you're feeling sick, and there is an overlap. That I have really integrated into my life. When I am preparing for a big race, I ~tend to ~do a taper, which means that at least for the last week leading up to my race, I drop my mileage down, [00:08:00] but I don't go to zero, and I have gone to zero mileage before, and that race didn't go ~very ~well. So ever since then, I always make sure.
To integrate active recovery into my training, ~which means that ~I don't ~just all of a sudden ~just sit on the couch for a week. I'm making sure that I'm still running throughout the week because what I've learned is active recovery is the best recovery. ~When you continue, ~when you take ~your ~recovery passively, you don't give your body what it needs to recover.
~What does this even mean? This means that ~when I'm training, my peak weeks will be somewhere around a hundred miles. Well, I have trained my body to know that a hundred miles. Is the most work it's gonna have to do in a week. So when I drop from a hundred [00:09:00] to zero, or if I drop a hundred to zero miles, my body's real confused.
It doesn't know what to do with itself. It really has no idea what the heck's going on. But when I drop from a hundred miles to 50. I am actually promoting recovery 'cause my body actually is preparing as if it's gonna run a hundred miles. 'cause it thinks that that's what's coming. When it goes to zero, it's like, what the heck is going on?
But when ~I start running and ~I cut my miles in half for a week, my body still thinks ~that, hey, ~he might be running a hundred miles this week. We better make sure that we're repairing his muscles enough. We better make sure that he has enough energy. So by moving my body less, ~but still moving my body, ~my body actually [00:10:00] recovers as if.
It's recovering from a hundred mile ~a ~week, but it's ~actually ~recovering from a 50 mile ~a ~week. ~So what that means is ~my body's healing even more. Same thing with being sick. If you all of a sudden stop working out altogether, your body isn't being told that it needs to do any recovery. We're basically telling our body, Hey, I'm still doing the thing. I need you to repair my muscles. I'm just not doing it as much. ~So when you do this, ~while ~you are ~sick, ~you're doing the same thing.~
You're telling your body, ~Hey, ~I'm still active. I ~still ~need you to repair these things. ~I still need you to. I am still active. I still need you to support and repair. ~You're ~basically ~telling your body it's time to ~do the things. So you're telling your body, Hey, I'm sick. You should probably ~repair ~these other things.~
Help me recover these other things. It's ~very interesting. This is why a taper is so ~important. We don't go from a hundred miles to zero. We go from a hundred miles, usually to 50, ~usually ~to 20 to 30. And then we run the race.
~Now, ~if you wanna take this to the next level, I have my three Pillars of Healthy Living Guide, where I talk about the three pillars of healthy living movement, which we've been talking about a lot already today. Tracking and accountability. By integrating these three pillars into your [00:11:00] life, which is gonna take you less than one or two minutes to ~even ~read
You're gonna start living happier and healthier. I'll see you in the next episode.
Thanks for tuning in to the Athlete with Asthma Show. I hope today's episode inspired you to overcome any perceived limitations you may have. Remember, your health and wellness journey isn't about perfection. It is about progress. So I invite you to take a small step right now towards your goals, and if you found something helpful here, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share the podcast with others on a similar path.
Until next time, keep challenging yourself and redefining what's possible.
