“I’ll sweat it out” is one of my most hated sentences, it drives me crazy like nails down a chalk board, or someone saying how good love island is!

Let me put one thing straight, you will not sweat a cold out! Just the actual thought process behind this saying is beyond stupid! You’re going to let your bugs out through your sweat? Really, how?

And breathe Simon, breathe!

Ok, so you’ve found yourself with some sort of cold, flu, cough, sneezes or fever, you’re booked on to a class or its chest and shoulders day or you agreed to meet Sue for a run. You don’t want to let anyone down; you feel like death, but you know if you go, you’ll sweat it out!

Have you thought about how you’re now going to spread your bugs to everyone else within the gym or class participants or to those at the park run, as you touch handles, barbells, kettlebells or cough all over the equipment and everyone else? Have you considered if anyone there has someone at home or work with low immunity or going through chemotherapy and cannot afford to carry germs to them?

But this is my main point to make. Imagine you have teenage kids, you decide to go away for the weekend with your partner, you’re going to leave your teenage darling at home alone. What’s the worst that can happen?

Let’s say, like in the films they have a “gathering” whilst you’re away, it gets out of hand, it’s all over SnapChat and social media they are home alone, the house gets trashed, every room is a mess, things get broken and it is going to take days if not weeks to put the house straight again. Nightmare yea!

Well, THAT IS EXACTLY HOW YOUR BODY WORKS WHEN YOU “SWEAT IT OUT”!!!

Yes, that is right. Ok, let me break it down for you. When you are ill, your body is basically under attack from some sort of bacteria or virus. The brain has to work hard using the kit stored within your body to tackle it. Ever wondered why you feel so sleepy when ill? It is your bodies way of shutting you down, so it can focus on tackling the bugs and bacteria.

If you then go and exercise by moving more (gym, fitness class, run, swim bla, bla, bla) the body MUST take this movement as precedence (priority) as the skeleton needs to move. The muscles require contractions, thousands of them, the heart needs to beat more - a lot more the harder you exercise, the lungs need to take in more oxygen, filtering and transporting the oxygen cells to the blood to feed the muscles moving, - shall I go on?

The bug/virus gets ignored due to the superiority need to move your body around. The bug then has a look round, notices the brain is ignoring it and boom, off it spreads quicker than normal because the blood supplying all these moving muscles is now flowing quicker -like hitching a ride around the body. Spreading to more areas of the body un-noticed. If you have worked your body hard, the recovery process takes time too, so the bug has even longer to spread until the brain is ready to tackle it again and like a parent returning home to a trashed house, it is disappointed, upset, angry, frustrated and stressed to the max!

Ok, you’ve got a full on cold, you now know not to train, what is best to do?

Well, that’s easy. Stay super hydrated, eat what you can, regardless of what it is, I don’t care, just eat! Try, where possible to consume as much protein as possible as your white cell production (in fact all cell production) requires protein. If you do not feed yourself enough protein, your body will eat its own supply! 

My main advice is to use a blender to make yourself a smoothie. Mainly because you do not feel like eating, so having a liquid shake is easy to swallow and doesn’t really feel like food. Additionally, the brain hasn’t much to do with regards of digestion.

The best one I recommend most is some sort of non-dairy milk (almond milk, coconut milk, oat milk, rice milks etc), oats, some sort of berries such as blueberries or raspberries, maybe a dollop of peanut butter, a bit of cinnamon and maybe some sort of protein powder. Whizz it up to a fine smooth drink and neck. Boom!

The oats will provide energy, the berries will provide immune support, the peanut butter is just dam tasty, the protein powder will help the body heal and repair and the cinnamon is a bit like an internal cleaner.

You can choose lots of different combinations to suit you, but if you google antioxidant fruit or foods and pick what you like. The flavour of the protein powder will change the taste too.

I’ve added coffee to mine before, that’s freaking tasty! A banana will give you a good energy kick too.

There are basically thousands of combinations you can use, but essentially you are increasing your calories to help you get better quicker.

The next most important thing to do is take as much Vitamin C & D as you can safely take! 75iu per kg of body weight is good advice. Current research is looking at 10iu per gram of bodyweight! So, at 105kg i'd need 10,500iu per day! 

It is highly researched Vitamin D is one of the top ways to help you get back to good health, so ensure you have some in stock. I personally use Bulk.com 

And additionally, it is important to stay well rested, not too warm, not too cold and just help your body get the job done. Don’t fight against it!

Now then, the next thing I hate to hear is “well I feel ok” … and yes you probably do! But internally your body is still clearing up the mess you created!

The best rule of thumb, in my opinion, is to wait THREE days from the moment you say, “I feel ok”! This will ensure you have provided adequate time for your body to clean the entire house after the house party. Then I would highly recommend you take it steady for a day or two, to see how you react. If you feel like crap, you will need a little more rest. If you feel ok, then crack on.

Let’s just say for arguments sake you have taken a full week off, do you honestly think you’ll have become fat, or lost all those weeks of fitness, or have gained 2 stone? No!

Yes, you’ll feel a little rough for a day or two, yes you might struggle just a tad, but in the grand scheme of things, not much will have changed, and let’s face it, your life is long people!