First Post: Get to know me!

Hey Guys, my name is Kate, I am 19 years old and I am an international badminton player and train intensely week in week out. I'm new to the concept of blogging but I thought for my posts I will share with you my opinions on different topics in sport including warm ups, sleep patterns and routines for training and competition and also a few sport hacks. My advice will stem mainly from what I have acquired throughout my badminton career although I am now studying Sports Science and Health and will try incorporate many different sports as well as posts that are generic and work across all sports. As I grow into blogging I hope that I will extend the topics that I will discuss. Hope you all enjoy! 

So, for this first post I thought I'd jump right in. Why wait? 

So, my question for you is...Should you train while you're sick? Well there's no simple answer to this and everyone has their own rules and proceedings which they follow when sick. But, the time of year it is now our immune systems tend to be weaker and more prone to infection. This is because of the cold weather and adverse conditions which all year round are not really seen until we get into November. Elite athletes who train twice or more every day or who prepare for competitions around this time should look into getting the flu vaccine as this will mean you should be immune from catching any sort of sickness or cold. This will mean you can continue training as normal throughout this time. 

But for others, who may get sick or catch a cold, is it beneficial to train or should you let your body rest up? For me, I follow the simple above the neck rule. So if you are suffering from a sore throat or blocked nose you are okay to train as normal. But if you have anything like a deep cough or pain around the stomach area you should seriously think about whether or not you should be training. I, myself know that it is easy to say "sure I'll sweat the bad out". But that's not what is best for your body. When you train, your body is working hard and your heart rate increases meaning your breathing and heart rate increase, which is normal. But when you have a cough, for example, it makes it harder to breathe when exercising and so maybe you think to yourself "oh, maybe I should have given it a miss today". Your body ends up fatiguing and can result in poor performances or training. 

The truth is though, that there is no dodging an infection, Everyday, thousands of bacteria come into contact with us and we think nothing of it. But when, some guy walks past you coughing and sneezing at the gym you think to yourself, why not stay home and rest today mate? But in all honesty, he has the same mind frame as you do. I can sweat it out. The most common infections and illnesses are throat infections (tonsillitis), ear infections, coughs and colds. Everyone is different and our bodies do work differently, however, so how you decide to train when sick may differ to others. 

All things considered, it's not recommended to stop training if you are not suffering too badly as you lose some match fitness. If you are an elite athlete, you need to keep up the training, but having said that, over-training your body while it is trying to fight infection can have negative impacts on your training, the main factor being that your body fatigues and struggles to recover in time for your next session. You, yourself should be the one to decide what you feel up to. If you are in training for a competition coming up then I would suggest that you do some lighter training sessions so that it doesn't put as much stress on the body. This will aid the body's recovery and preparation for competition. 

Hope my first post was helpful and insightful for you guys and I hope to see you back soon. 

If you have any questions, or have any topics you'd like me to cover feel free to comment below.