Do You Work Out When You're Sick?

You've seen that girl at the gym. Heck, maybe you are that girl at the gym. Red-nosed, sniffly, sneezy...and hunched over the elliptical machine. You can almost see her sweating out the germs. But does working out when you've got a cold make you sicker--or help you recover faster?

The New York Times recently posed that question to exercise experts. And while research on the topic is scant, there appears to be little harm--and possibly some good!--in working out when you're under the weather.

One study from Ball State University in Indiana found that people with head colds had the same exercise capacity and lung function as healthy subjects. "I was surprised their overall exercise performance wasn't impaired, even though they were reporting feeling fatigued," lead study author Leonard Kaminsky told The New York Times. In another study by Kaminsky, 34 volunteers were infected with a cold virus--sniff! Sixteen of the subjects were told to rest; the others exercised with their colds. Surprisingly, the researchers found no differences in symptoms--or recovery time--between the groups. People in the exercise group even told researchers that being active made them feel better!

It's time to come clean: I'm that girl who goes to the gym when she's sick. (Hey, it takes a lot to shake up my routine!) But I definitely dial back on the intensity when I'm not feeling well--and I bring plenty of antibacterial wipes so I don't leave germs on the equipment!