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When I first became a personal trainer, I was puzzled by a very strange pattern: I would come across many motivated, willing trainees – we would go through a few intense workouts together, and on their own my client would come in and do a lot of additional work. I was very happy to see them putting in effort at a level they never had before and at the same time being so committed to adhering to their new strict diets.

So what would happen?

In many cases great results; but more times than I can count, they would get sick; and I’m not talking just your minor cold – they would get full blown, bed-ridden flu. It would keep them out of the gym for at least a week and at a lower level of performance for at least 2, completely take away any progress they had worked so hard for, and kill their momentum and motivation.

In the beginning I thought it was just coincidence; or maybe I was pushing them too hard or it was the germs in the gyms themselves. It was a while until I found out the true medical correlation between exercise and immune function.

Intense exercise is a physiological insult, meaning it shocks and breaks down the body; the idea is that our muscles repair and our cardiovascular system adapts to handle even more stress in the future - that’s how progress comes about.

However, the damage from exercise require the bodies immune system, more specifically leukocytes or white-blood cells, to handle much of the job of repair. Yes, that’s the same immune system you use to fight off colds and infections. When the immune system is overloaded with too much exercise too soon, especially combined with a strict diet, many times it cannot compensate fast enough. The result? A cold, and because of your weak system, a really nasty one.

Even the advanced trainee is susceptible to this phenomenon – if you suddenly increase your exercise volume combined with a sudden drop in calories, maybe in an attempt to diet for vacation or a competition, you can also get sick in the same way.

But just the way our muscles adapt to the stresses of exercise, our immune system adapts as well. We eventually can handle the exercise better, and can handle the increase load placed on the system because of it. Although I couldn’t find any exact data on it, you can assume that this will leave your immune system even stronger and help you fight of colds even better.

So in summary, I advise new trainees, no matter how motivated or how close your deadline to get in shape is, to start slow. I usually do not allow new clients to train with more than twice the first week, and advise them to do only very low-intensity cardio if anything on their “off” days. You may need to start slow, but that’s nothing compared to how badly a cold can slow you down.