Is It Safe to Exercise When You’re Sick?

It happens to all of us: Your alarm goes off for a morning workout and you roll over with a groan. You’re not just tired — your body feels off.

If you’re starting to get sick, is it better to rest or push through an illness to get to the gym? And how sick is too sick to exercise?

Look to your specific symptoms for answers, said Dr. Greg Summerville, a sports medicine physician at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“Your body is speaking to you,” he said. Your symptoms are there for a reason.

With fall virus season picking up, The New York Times asked doctors how to know when you should skip your workout and when it’s safe to get back to exercise.

Use your symptoms as a guide.

When you first feel an inkling of illness, Dr. Amy Comander, the director of the lifestyle medicine program at Massachusetts General Hospital, recommends evaluating how your whole body feels, and doing a “neck check.” If your symptoms are above the neck — say, a runny nose, congestion or a sore throat — you are probably safe to work out as long as you feel up for it.

But if you are experiencing symptoms below the neck, such as muscle aches or an elevated heart rate, that is probably a sign that your body is working hard to fight off an infection, and exercising could set back your recovery time, she said.