training while sick

[quasimoto]

hey guys

my question is, im a bit sick right now, and im getting better after having been sick for about two weeks, and i want to know if doing training will have any negative effects on me, such as making it harder to recover from being sick or negative impact on breath hold or something. I want to be doing dry statics, apnea walking and co2 and 02 tables
thanks guys
rory

 

[jome]

I'd say better just rest and recover. You have the rest of your life to train and improve.

Dry statics can and will slow your recovery. I personally believe they will also increase the changes of you getting sick if you do it a lot. Statics can also be very tought on the heart, so doing them while sick is not a good idea, just like any kind of physical exercise while sick.

Just kick back for a few days, sleep well, drink enough water and eat healthily. Give your body time to recover it's strength. There's nothing to gain by training while sick and potentially a lot to lose.

(this all without knowing what you mean by "sick", I'm assuming you mean recovering from a flu or something)

 

[efattah]

I don't recommend doing any apnea while sick.

 

[naiad]

I think it's much better to wait until you are fully recovered.

Lucia

 

[subaquaticus]

I don't recommend doing any apnea while sick.

all the more since sickness might be cpntagious and contaminate the fellow freedivers !

 

[donmoore]

I totally agree with everyone’s thoughts. I am sick today, and was tempted to do a dry static, just because the last one I did was last Friday.

After having the best winter in my life of not catching anything major, the wife had a baby and I became run down from lack of sleep. Then in May I caught the flu! A week and a half later I pushed myself to go diving (last Sunday) with an Associated Press reporter, just because the weather was perfect and we had been trying to do it for 6 weeks unsuccessfully. Monday morning I knew I had pushed it too fast too soon. I have been sick all week. Six hours of sleep a night with a colicky baby just isn’t cutting it (I’m too old for this baby stuff!). I’m as sick today as I was Monday.

Your body’s O2 and its ability to recover from low O2 seems very effective by sickness. I have done dry statics with a pulse/oximeter for almost 2 years now, and there is a significant difference in my starting Sa O2%, speed at which Sa O2 drops, and time it takes to recover between being sick and well. For instance, right now I am 97% on the meter reading. When well I am usually 100%. On a good day, I can maintain 100% on the reading for the first 2 ½ minutes or more so you can really see how much of a setback sickness is.

A good day I will still be at 98 to 100% SaO2 on the reading at 3 minutes. Now granted this reading is with the delay one gets from a finger monitor, but it still gives a reference point to compare day to day with. Today if I did a dry static, it would probably be in the 80’s at 3 minutes. I would feel even worse than I do now for the rest of the day. I have had days when sick where I was only 95% SaO2 on the reading when breathing.

Heed the good advice given, and save your O2 for your body to use in fighting the infection. The one freediving exercise you might do while sick, is practice deep belly breathing. That should get more O2 into your body since 2/3 of a person’ alveoli are in the lower ½ of their lungs so this should help oxygenate the body which could speed your recovery.
don

 

[quasimoto]

thanks guys, no training for me


sounds good, since im a lazy kid anyways