Catch-22

Oh you know what I'm talking about. You catch a cold or a stomach bug. You do your dilligence and take a few days (in my case 1 week) off. You feel significantly better but in your heart you know you are not 100%. But you for some reason feel the need to get back to the gym....

You work out anyway. Why? Because you're sick of laying around. Because you don't want to regress. Because you're an addict. Because you think maybe it will magically help. And of course, when faced with the option of scaling back the weight...you feel like a huge wus!

I mean, it's a tough situation. For me, I really didn't want all the work I put in to go away. I didn't want to regress. But the truth is, I wasn't ready to lift again. I was still congested and my body was weak, although getting better. My lifts yesterday were shitty. All that work on form went away, and my debilitated body was just moving load to move load. I haven't done that for a long time, and it was not fun. Nor was it productive. I just felt bad about the session, and less confident in my lifts. Thank goodness I don't feel worse today.

I should have either 1.) rested a few more days 2.) scaled the weight and just reinforced good movement patterns. Probably the latter.

Rudy told me so. I'm sorry coach, you have my full trust and I did not mean to be disrespectful. I just got antsy!

Part of getting strong is mental strength. It's treating your body well, and giving it what it needs. To overcome the "weak" urge to do something that will be counter-productive. Remember, there is only one goal, and I shouldn't be doing anything that isn't working towards it. The goal is to stick to the goal....

Live and learn I suppose....

Do strong people get sick less?

So, I'm home sick. Per our cult leader, Rudy Tapalla, no lifting for me today. Not until I'm recovered.
That bears the obvious question: do strong people catch fewer colds and illnesses?
I mean, I never see Rudy or Glenn or Bryce or Alex sick.
Glenn will sneeze twice in one day and then it's over for him. He actually gave me this cold that I have right now, and it hit me way harder. 
Now Wikipedia (very scientific, I know) tells me that people with STRONGER immune systems develop colds more frequently due to the strong inflammatory response to the cold virus. People under high stress (aka high cortisol levels) are also more likely to develop infections due to the relative immunosuppressive effects of cortisol.
Wait a second, I thought a STRONG immune response to the virus causes the cold.
Now to make things even more complex, it seems that athletes (esp endurance athletes and those that do high intensity interval training) are more susceptible to colds, due to decreased IgA levels in their mouths and noses. Interesting.
So, I'm really no better off than where I started with trying to understand who, what, and why? I suppose I'd win a Nobel prize if I could figure it out. But alas, I'm bored with this so on to something else....
A few final words for thought....courtesy of Sir Oliver Wendell Holmes

"I firmly believe that if the whole of materia medica, as now used, could be sunk to the bottom of the sea, it would be all the better for mankind - and all the worse for the fishes"