Episode 79- How to Workout When You’re Sick
Episode 79 Show Notes
Should you work out when you're sick? In this episode, I break down exactly what to do when you’re feeling under the weather but still want to stay active. Spoiler: It all depends on how you're feeling!
I share my personal experience of fighting off a lingering cold, how I adjust my workouts when I’m not 100%, and the best types of movement for different levels of sickness. Plus, I dive into the importance of listening to your body, fueling properly for recovery, and my favorite natural remedies to bounce back faster—including my go-to wet sock therapy (yes, it works!).
If you’ve ever wondered when to push through and when to rest, this episode is for you.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
✔️ The key signs that indicate you should skip your workout altogether
✔️ The best types of movement for when you’re feeling run-down
✔️ The role of proper nutrition in recovery (and why thick thighs = longevity!)
✔️ Natural remedies to boost your immune system and feel better faster
Resources & Links:
🔹 Follow me on Instagram: @tiffanylwickes for more health & fitness tips
🔹 My go-to immune-boosting supplements
🔹 Check out my favorite stretch routine for recovery
🔹 Learn more about wet sock therapy
Did You Enjoy This Episode?
If you loved this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Share it with a friend who might need some guidance on staying active while fighting off a cold. Stay well, stay strong, and I'll catch you in the next episode! 💪✨
Let’s Connect! I share tons of fitness tips and more behind the scenes on my social accounts.
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Tiffany Wickes (00:00.654)
Should you work out when you're sick? Well, let's talk about it. Okay, so I'm feeling this kind of hard right now. I have been like fighting something for probably a week and a half now and it's nothing that's taken me out. It's just kind of like low energy and I also know why that's happening, but I'll get to that in a second. It's like low energy, just kind of like in the evening, like my throat starts hurting and I've had this like constant runny nose.
And I'm pretty sure that's because, I mean, I'm allergic to cats. All right, I'll tell you a quick story about being allergic to cats, actually. So I did not grow up with cats. My dad hated cats, said all cats made great hats. I don't know where that saying came from, but it stuck. So therefore I hated cats, okay? So I didn't grow up with these animals. So fast forward, I'm about to get married. All right, this was 19 years ago. I'm about to get married and I go to my soon to be husband's family's home.
and there they have like two or three cats and they have a bunch of dogs and they've got horses and stuff. So I go into the house and I'm just like, my gosh, my eyes, you my eyes are burning and my nose is watering and I'm supposed to be staying at his family's house and I guess he was gonna stay at a friend's house or whatever, because we got married out of town. Like we were living in Alaska, but we went to Washington to get married in his hometown. So I'm in this house for like two days and then my eyes are bloodshot.
They're swollen, they're itchy, they're red, they're irritated. And I'm like, this is not good. I'm supposed to be getting married in like a day and a half. And I look like a complete disaster. My throat's all scratching gross. So thankfully his father was an optometrist. So he got me some like steroids drops for my eyes and I got the hell out of that house. I was like, okay, I'm done, not staying here anymore. So I went to hotel and stayed there with my sisters and some friends that had.
flown in from out of town, but I was trying to be like cordial, right? And then stay with his folks or whatever. So I knew back then, okay, apparently I'm allergic to cats. So fast forward in my life, we got cats because my daughter wanted one. And it was like, okay, I'll just maybe can live outside a lot. But I was like, well, you know, maybe I'm like desensitized to it. I'm older. I think that's the cause of this persistent runny nose. Like there's no color to it. It's just constant runny, runny, runny, runny, runny. It's so
Tiffany Wickes (02:24.652)
disgusting and I hate it, but I think it's the cats. Aside from that, I am fighting something because of my sore throat. Excuse me. Apparently an occasional cough. So I haven't worked out in a few days. And, you know, when I have my coaching clients are like, gosh, I'm really not feeling well. You know, like, should I work out? Should I just do, should I do HIIT? Should I just go walk? Like, what should I do? Here is what I tell them. And sickness is
Man, it is rampant right now. I've got multiple friends with kids in hospital, kids getting infections and requiring antibiotics, know, things that they typically like the people I run with don't typically give their kids antibiotics and they certainly just don't give, you know, medicines just willy nilly, you know, this is really intentional stuff on their part. So with that being said, here's what I tell my clients and I'll tell you the same thing. In short, it really just depends on how you feel.
All right, since I have kind of a runny nose, just kind of feeling a little tired and stuff, I will, I'm avoiding high intensity interval training right now anyway, because I'm on the keto diet, which puts a stress on your body. My carbohydrates are way lower than I typically do. So I'm not doing high intensity no matter what, but I would certainly avoid that if you're feeling run down. Okay. If you can get a nap and then get in a lift,
Like that's great, but move slowly, lift heavily, but don't do anything that taxes your body any further than it already is. So if I would typically do eight to 10 reps of a back squat and maybe it's 125 pounds, I would probably drop that down to like 85 pounds, right? Work at more of a five to six out of 10 exertion level rather than a nine out of 10 and certainly not a 10 out of 10.
I would not suggest running, but if you want to go for a walk, that would probably feel really good to get some fresh air. Stretching your body typically feels really good when you're not feeling 100%. If you're vomiting or if you have a fever, all bets are off. Like we're not exercising. You're probably like flat on your face because you're not a kid who can just puke and then get up and keep running. So fever, vomiting, like if you have like, I've got a wearable device now. It's a whoop.
Tiffany Wickes (04:44.95)
And I'm not so sure how I feel about this device, but it is certainly giving me information that I don't necessarily love, but is helpful to know. Like, hey, you still aren't recovered. Like apparently I haven't recovered from anything that I've done in a month that I've been wearing this thing. And I don't know, maybe I'll record a podcast episode on all my adventures on trying to quote, get a hundred percent recovered, but I never get 100%. And I didn't even work out yesterday. All I did was
take my daughter to her therapy and then we went to Costco and then we dropped off some donation supplies. came home, unloaded Costco, which, okay, have you ever unloaded a haul of Costco for a family of nine? Let me just tell you, six to $700 worth of groceries is no joke. It's a lot of back and forth and I'm going up the stairs in the garage, like to get into the house and going down the stairs into the basement to put stuff in that fridge and then this fridge and it's a whole thing, you guys. So.
After all of that and then cleaning the house and then running kids to their locations and then coming back here and then making dinner and cleaning up dinner and getting kids to bed, my whoop was like, you have over exerted yourself today. I'm like, sir, all I did was live my life. I didn't even work out yesterday. I didn't go on a walk. I didn't lift. I just lived my life. And apparently my whoop thinks that that is entirely too much. I don't.
I do not know what to do about recovery because I went to bed at 10 o'clock last night and granted the baby still wakes up. I can't do anything about that unless I just leave him to scream. And that is just wholeheartedly against my personal ethics with babies is to leave them in their crib to just scream. Like I'm just not there. Maybe, I mean, never, I'll never be there. Sorry, I'm just not. So yes, I will just suffer with being tired rather than let my kiddo scream in his crib.
So I go to him, he comes in, he snuggles, he nurses, it's all fine and dandy, but I'm not exactly sleeping well during this and my whoop is telling me that. So here it is. This is my rule of thumb to go off of is today I would, it hasn't said I'm recovered no matter what, so I'm like, well, may as well just keep going. So today I do intend to do some squats. I'm gonna lower the volume of squats down and I'm gonna lower the amount of weight that I might typically lift.
Tiffany Wickes (06:57.102)
and I'm just gonna move. I'm gonna go out on a walk, just slowly with the kids. I'm not gonna wear a weight vest like I normally do. I'm just gonna walk. I'm gonna get some fresh air. I'm gonna see how much sun I can get on my eyes, on my face. I'm gonna breathe in that nice cool mountain Utah air. And then tonight I'm going to do a stretch routine. I'm gonna try to get into the tub and soak. And then hopefully, you know, get to bed around 9.30 instead of 10 because obviously 10 was too late even still.
And then I'm going to work on that level of recovery. can't right now because of my protocol, I can't help recover with more food because typically I would tell a person to increase the amount of protein that they're eating for recovery and then reduce the amount if you're, man, did hear that? Reduce the amount of simple carbohydrates. So if your meal plan typically called for rice, I would say.
take the rice out and then add some fresh fruit in there. So I'm not against carbohydrates. Like, well, personally right now, I guess I have to be because I'm doing the keto protocol for 20 more days. just, you know, in case anyone's counting, it's 20 more days. And so I'm not eating any fruit right now, but that's what I would tell you is take away breads, pastas, cereals, rice, beans, all those things that are a little bit more difficult to digest.
and let's stick with things that are very easy to digest. So bone broth soups with chicken thighs, like a fattier meat that's a little bit more wholesome for your body. Get some good collagen in there, get some fresh fruits, some salads, try not to overcook things so that you can get all the enzymes and the minerals and stuff in your body. And that will all help with recovery. And of course, rest when you can. But as a mother, it's a little bit ridiculous to assume.
that you're just gonna have two and a half hours during the day to rest. But I'm kind of saying that a little bit giggling right now because I do have a babysitter downstairs. This was like the best investment ever. It's a local homeschool girl. She's got some free time and her mom posted up there like, does anybody need some help? And I was like, yeah, yeah, I could use some help. That would be amazing. That way when Adam comes home, I'm not just using all the time he's home to get work done. So she comes over once a week for two hours.
Tiffany Wickes (09:18.75)
And I got to thinking, maybe I should use the two hours today to go take a nap. And then maybe I'll just try and work some other time. Anyway, that's not what I'm doing. I'm recording a podcast. So because so many people are sick right now and because I'm on the verge of something gross, that's all I'm going to do today is I'm going to do some squats because it's terribly important to grow the largest muscles in your body, more specifically your leg muscles.
Longevity is directly related to how thick your thighs are. Like I'm not lying. I'm going to make a reel about it soon. You can check it out on my Instagram. Your longevity, you need thick thighs. Thick thighs save lives. Okay? Put that on a t-shirt, wear proudly. Start squatting just a little bit heavier and a little bit more often. Get that booty, get those thighs, get those hamstrings nice and built up. That is the key to your longevity. So there you go. I've addressed what I think you ought to eat.
I have addressed how I think you ought to work out and your mindset. think absolutely vitamin C, by the way, supplementation. think that's a worthwhile venture to get into. So a liposomal vitamin C would be amazing. Zinc. I think these are probably things you guys have already heard because I mean, COVID just busted open the jar of secrets, right? In terms of things that you can do to help feel a little bit better. If you're not on a great magnesium supplement, that's going to help.
But I like to focus and which is a little ironic actually part of my protocol is that I'm on an immune boosting Protocol and it's got all kinds of stuff in it. I remember everything it's got like here certain it's got a high dose vitamin C It's got zinc. It's got boron. It's got garlic in there. It's got all kinds of stuff in there and yet here I am Not recovering very quickly. So anyway, get those things on board probably help you feel better a little bit of cayenne pepper
Apple cider vinegar is amazing. If you end up with a fever or your kids, you guys, I love wet sock therapy. Most people have never heard it. They think it's totally hokey, but it has worked with my kids 100 % of the time. No lie. So here's what you do. And then I'll tell you the science and then we'll wrap it up. So you get a freezing cold, like in ice water, freezing cold pair of socks. Try to get a pair of white socks that's not dyed so that you don't have any dyes being absorbed through the soles, the bottoms of your feet.
Tiffany Wickes (11:40.29)
Because that's a very porous area which is why grounding outside is so important to absorb the Earth's magnetic energy through the bottom of your feet. However, if you are grounding you want to make sure you're grounding in a place that hasn't been treated with a bunch of pesticides. Alright, so I know back to wet sock therapy. So you get these ice cold wet socks. You put them directly on the kiddo's feet or your own feet and I know your kids are gonna be like, no I don't want that. I know suck it up. Do it anyway.
And then you get a pair of wool socks or some sort of natural fiber. And then you can put those over top, the cold socks. Okay, so those are dry. So you've got freezing cold wet socks directly on the feet. I like to put essential oils on the bottom of their feet as well. And then I put the cold socks on and then I put the warm socks over top of them. they're not warm. They're like room temp, but they're not wet is what I'm getting at. So you put those over the top and then you snuggle them up in a blanket and then have them take a nap or...
watch a movie, but the key is you don't want them moving because here's what we're trying to get to. Here's the science behind it. Your body wants to reach a place of homeostasis. Homeostasis means it wants everything to be level. Well, when your feet are cold, it's going to send a bunch of extra blood to your feet to warm them up. What travels in your blood that also tries to fight invaders and pathogens? White blood cells. So
With that extra flow of blood heading to your feet to try and warm them up, it will also help flush out your lymphatic system and then get those white blood cells moving around your body and circulating. Because typically if you're still because you're not feeling well and you're not moving as much, well guess what's also not moving a whole lot? Your lymph. And in your lymph is where all the good white blood cells are and all the other cells that are gonna start cleaning up.
damaged and dying and pathogenic stuff within your body and viruses. So if you can get that moving through the act of homeostasis, since you don't feel like jumping up and down to get your lymph moving or perhaps massaging every location on your body where there's a lymph node, this is a great way to do it. And it has worked really, really well. Plus popsicle therapy, I do that with my kids and they actually love that. That's a great way to help bring down fever and to get extra fluids in.
Tiffany Wickes (13:55.586)
And these are natural popsicles, so fresh juice. You really just don't want to buy crap at the store that has dyes in it. And maybe it has some extra sugar. They could probably use a little bit of extra sugar when they haven't been eating a whole lot to keep their blood sugar up and then give them bone broth as much as you can. But popsicle therapy has been huge for us. And these are just a couple of the things that have worked really, really well for my kids. Epsom salt soaks. I'm looking forward to that tonight.
and then get into bed a little bit earlier than I did last night and see if I can get fully recovered. So there you go. Here's what I do when I am sick and I am currently finding something. So it seemed relevant to share it with you. I hope you guys are staying healthy out there. If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up on the socials. I am so glad that you tuned in today and as always, stay well my friends, stay strong. Talk soon, bye.