Loss of stamina after being sick...

[CLB]

I got hit hard with the creepy crud. I had strep one week (7 days of antibiotics), got better and started to get my wind back and then BAM got hit with bronchitis for the first time in my life!

I have been clear to workout since Monday June 16, and man I just have no wind. I feel like my workout capacity has been cut in half.

Last night I just did two rounds of jump rope, two of shadowboxing and ran two miles and I had nothing left. It was even worse earlier in the week. I can't even make it through one round of hitting the heavy bag hard.

Has anyone had similar experiences when coming off being sick for awhile? It's very frustrating to have my stamina in the toilet when I'm used to going full out!

[Guest]

I got hit with a real bad viral infection in February and ended up in hospital, in a bad way. It stripped me to the bone and its been a hard road back, if I can offer some advice:

- Make sure you are fully recovered and rested before you start again. If your illness was in any way viral it can stay in the background for weeks or months. I forced myself to rest for a month after coming out of hospital

- As frustrating as it is, start easy and set your goals low at the start. In my first session back I did 3x2 mins of shadowboxing. Yep, that’s it. Sounds pathetic, but it was enough after 6 weeks on my back. I built each session gradually from there.

- In the first few weeks allow yourself more rest days than you would have before, your body will need it, and will grow stronger for it.

- Eat more, sleep more, drink more (water) – again your body will need the extra help in recovery.

- If you start to feel ill again, you’re pushing it too hard, so drop back

All common sense I guess, but it really helped me. The good news is that if you were in athletic condition before you were ill, then your body will relate and respond to the exercise fairly quickly. The movements will be in your muscle memory and your CV will find it’s rhythm again given time.

Ironically, and I know I’ve written his before, the illness was one of the best things that happened to my training. I stopped trying to always train harder, and learned to train smarter, and I’m in better shape now than I was before I was ill.

Good luck.

[tekshow]

Michael has it right, that's good advice.

I had a good solid year of straight conditioning and ended up with a mild cold, then took a vacation totalling two weeks off. My conditioning went down completely, but it also came back quick by jumping in easy and smart.

You'll be blasting through rounds before you know it.