Practising When You Are Run Down or Getting Over Something

The rule most people half-remember is "above the neck, fine; below the neck, rest". It is a rough guide rather than a medical rule, and it is more useful once you know what it is for: it separates a head cold, where gentle movement usually does no harm, from a systemic illness, where it might.

The more important question is the one after it, what to do in the two weeks afterwards, when you are not ill any more but not right either.

While you are actually ill

Rest, mostly, and without guilt about it.

A blocked nose and a sore throat, with no fever, no aching and nothing on the chest: gentle movement is generally fine if you want it, and some people find slow breathing and a few supported shapes genuinely comfortable. Keep it short and keep it easy.

Fever, aching muscles, a chesty cough, a stomach upset, or feeling properly unwell: not the day. Exercising through a systemic illness is at best unhelpful, and a practice missed for a week costs you nothing.

Anything involving breathlessness, chest pain, or an illness that is not behaving normally is a matter for a doctor rather than a judgement call about whether to practise.

The fortnight afterwards

This is where people get it wrong, in both directions.

Some come back at exactly the volume they left at, feel wiped out for three days, and conclude they have lost everything. Others wait until they feel completely normal, which after a lot of viral illnesses takes considerably longer than the illness itself, and by then the habit has gone.

What tends to work is coming back at roughly half (half the length, half the intensity) for several days, and letting the response decide the next step. If you feel better an hour after practising, add a little. If you are flattened for the rest of the day, you went too early, and nothing is lost by waiting.

Fatigue that keeps returning, or that is markedly worse after any exertion, is worth taking seriously rather than pushing through, and worth mentioning to your GP.

What is worth doing at half strength

Breathing, lying down. Slow, with a longer exhale, supported. It asks almost nothing and it is the piece most people find helpful while recovering.

Gentle movement, short. Ten minutes of unhurried, familiar shapes. Nothing new, nothing demanding, nothing held long.

Getting outside and walking. Not yoga, and often the better first step back.

Sleep, ahead of all of it. The practice that helps a run-down body most is the one that supports sleep rather than competing with it, which means evenings that are calm rather than stimulating.

Where a teacher helps

Judging the return, largely.

The useful question after an illness is not "can I do this shape" but "how much is the right amount this week", and that is exactly the question people answer badly on their own. A teacher who knows what you were doing beforehand can pitch the return, watch how you respond to it, and tell you when to add rather than leaving you to guess.

There is also a practical benefit to having the session already booked. It stops a fortnight off becoming three months off, which is by some distance the most common way a practice ends.

Sessions are thirty or sixty minutes, live on video, at a time you choose, and a short, quiet session while you are getting back on your feet is a perfectly good use of one.

Questions people ask

Is it safe to practise with a cold?

With a head cold and no fever, gentle short practice is generally fine if you feel up to it. With fever, body aches, a chesty cough or a stomach upset, rest instead. Anything with breathlessness or chest pain is a question for a doctor.

How soon can I go back to normal practice?

Come back at about half your usual length and intensity, and let how you feel afterwards decide the next step. Feeling better an hour later means you can add a little; being flattened for the day means it was too soon.

Will I lose everything if I stop for two weeks?

No. A fortnight off makes very little lasting difference. What you notice in the first session back is mostly a temporary sluggishness that resolves within a week or two. Coming back too hard is what actually sets people back.

What if the tiredness does not lift?

Fatigue that persists for weeks, or that is much worse after any activity, is worth seeing your GP about rather than training through. A practice should not be the way you test whether something has resolved.