How To NOT Get Sick
The best way to avoid down time from sickness is to not get sick in the first place! The great thing is that our bodies naturally begin to build stronger defenses against sicknesses we may encounter as we eat better and exercise more. And, in the off chance that you do come down with something, you’re body will be far more prepared to counter it and get you back to normal ASAP. Here are some tips and tricks to keep you on the right path (some common, some not so common):
Eat High Quality Foods – As a staple component of your body transformation diet, you’re already giving yourself a leg up on fighting off potential sicknesses by eating high quality foods your body needs. This helps to supply you with an array of natural, immune stimulating vitamins and minerals while keeping your digestive abilities in prime condition. By avoiding copious amounts of over-processed foods your body doesn’t need, you won’t have to worry about excess energy being consumed for digesting low quality bulk.
Use High Quality Supplements – We can’t always conveniently get everything we need from whole foods throughout the day. High quality dietary supplements do a fantastic job of filling this void. As we’ve discussed previously, you must have a multivitamin in your daily arsenal. This will help to fill in gaps that may be missed by a lack of variety in your daily diet. High quality whey proteins are known to have immunity-boosting properties and are an excellent addition to your daily diet. Other time-specific supplements help as well such as:
Vitamin C – The old standby. Popularized by Dr. Linus Pauling’s studies and further impacted by decades of empirical data showing that it helps in the area of immunity. I personally take a minimum of 2-3grams per day of Vitamin C. I will bring this up to 5+ grams per day when I feel like I may be getting sick. Assess your tolerance to higher than normal doses and see if your body benefits from it. Being water soluble, it is very difficult to get too much Vitamin C.
Vitamin D – recent studies point to Vitamin D being helpful in the area of fighting of the flu. It supposedly is effective with H1N1 or Swine Flu as well but I’m not certain there’s enough data to support this just yet. And, as always with any dietary supplement, it is important to keep in mind the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) guidelines regarding what can and can not be said about dietary supplements. Without being able to legally discuss possible benefits of supplements, many are left to their own motives and experimentation to determine what does and doesn’t work for them. There are several positive links between Vitamin D and its ability to help prevent the flu available at The Vitamin D Council website.
Echinacea – Another classic that has been said to have immunity-boosting properties. I have personally used this with varying degrees of effectiveness. Sometimes it seems to have worked great and other times not as much. In recent years I have not used it much but I attribute that to being more consistent with a high quality diet, consistent exercise and a more complete approach to health, fitness and well being. If you've never tried Echinacea before when you begin to feel a cold coming on, give it a shot and see how it works for you.
Get Some Sleep – I’m terrible at this one! Being overtired can quickly lead to sickness. Getting some solid, uninterrupted sleep each night goes a long way to keeping your body ready to fight off any sicknesses. When you’re exercising regularly, eating well and sleeping sufficiently, your body does a great job of staying that way. As we’ve spoken about in other posts, our bodies like to get into a specific habit or routine and stay there – whether good or bad. Being in a healthy state where your body fights off potential sicknesses is a good place to be!
Wash Your Hands Often – Especially after a workout. This one should be a no brainer but it took me a while to figure this out. The next two items are directly related to this as well. As a kid, I remember being a mess all the time from playing outside with friends, riding bicycles, swimming, etc. Stopping to quickly eat a sandwich with grubby little hands never stopped us. As we get older, it’s not as easy to get away with eating like that and the grubby little hands need some washing! Be sure to wash your hands often and avoid…
Touching Your Eyes, Nose, Mouth and Ears – Don’t Do It! – Again, especially during or after a workout. Years ago when I was going to a gym, I was getting sick every month or so. It was from inadvertently scratching my eye, rubbing my nose, touching my mouth, etc while exercising. Gyms tend to be festering pools of bacteria and you need to be careful to avoid getting sick. Once I was consciously aware of what I was doing, I made (and still make) a point of keeping my hands away from my eyes, ears, nose and mouth until I’ve had a chance to wash them thoroughly.
Splash Cold Water On Your Face After Your Workout – Maybe this is just a superstition that I believe, but I feel this (along with washing my hands) has contributed a lot to not getting sick. My theory is this: after working out, I thoroughly wash my hands with warm water then crank the water temp to as cold as it can go. I’ll splash this icy cold water on my face and it tends to take my breath away. I’ll do it a few times then dry off and be on my way. It seems to me, and feels like the pores on my face are constricting due to the cold and therefore possibly not allowing bacteria to enter. True or not, I’m not 100% sure, but I think it works for me and I recommend you give it a shot as well.
How To NOT Get Injured
Just like getting sick, the best way to avoid down time from injury is to not get injured in the first place. Sometimes accidents happen and there’s not much we can do about it but beyond accidents, we can make changes to how we do things to try hard not to get injured. Here are a few tips and tricks to help you out (again, some common and some not too common):
Always Try To Use Proper Exercise Form – A quick way to induce injury is exercising improperly. Too much weight, moving to fast, being off balance, not paying attention to proper body mechanics – there are many ways to get injured while exercising. Like anything else, it’s very important to learn the proper way to do things from the start then to create bad habits that could lead to injury in the future. There are many good books out there that provide instruction on proper exercise form. Check them out, study the proper way to do the various exercises and don’t fall victim to mimicking those folks in the gym who don’t know what they’re doing.
Don’t Use Too Much Weight – it’s not a contest and you really don’t need to try and impress anybody. If you can’t lift much weight, then you can’t lift much weight. It’s not a big deal. You can create a fantastic looking body without lifting a ton of weight. Getting stronger is part of it, but it doesn’t happen all at once. Slowly building up the amount of weight you can lift or move is what it’s all about. The body adapts slowly and will adapt if you allow it. Overdoing it just puts too much stress on your body and it will break down if it can’t handle that stress.
Don’t Overtrain Or Exercise Too Often – It’s great to be motivated and try to consistently do a lot of exercise but there’s a fine line between being motivated and overdoing it. Your body will tell you when your pushing too hard and it does so by breaking down. Muscle soreness can become brutal if you’re pushing yourself too hard and not eating properly or getting enough rest. I have fallen victim to this a few times and wound up spending 7 – 10 days just trying to recuperate. Take it easy, be consistent but don’t overdo it with weight, intensity or duration.
Get Plenty Of Rest – Just like the ‘Rest’ portion from the Avoiding Sickness section above, it applies here as well. Your body needs sufficient rest to take time off, repair and get ready for the next bout of activity you’re going to throw at it. Extended periods of time without enough rest and sleep drags your body further and further into a fatigued state which many times ends in injury or sickness. This also goes for plain old days off as well. If you like adhering to a strict schedule of exercising on specific days you may find that sometimes it’s best to skip a day. Not because ‘you don’t feel like exercising’ but because you’re sore from your last session and your body could benefit from some down time.
Eat High Quality Foods To Repair – Again, this will echo much of what was covered in the section above but it holds true to preventing injury as well. Every time you complete an intense exercise session, your body becomes damaged by the exercises (on purpose) and needs to recover and repair so it can be prepared for the next session. Eating high quality foods allows your body to repair and recover quickly. The better you eat, the faster you repair so you’ll be ready for your next exercise session.
As you can surely see, there are many components that work synergistically to insure you stay in top shape to avoid sickness and injury. It’s not going to be that one magic pill, special exercise, or trick that will forever keep you away from these things so please don’t fall victim that kind of marketing. Consistent, small amounts of effort across a wide spectrum of areas work together to keep you healthy over time.
In Part 2 we’ll focus on how we can recover as quickly as possible if we do get sick or injured.
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