Long story short,  it’s not advisable.

I came down with a delightful common cold last week, and being stubborn I decided I was still going to boulder despite not feeling 100%. A quick Google search told me that if your illness symptoms are ‘above the neck’ e.g a common cold, you’ll mostly likely be fine to do some low intensity exercise. Awesome! So an hour before I climbed I had some food, took some flu capsules and headed off to the gym thinking everything would be okay.

At the time I genuinely felt better for climbing. I was sending problems, chatting with friends and overall in good spirits. However when I woke up the next day I felt awful! I was expecting some climbing aches, but I had sinus pain, a worse cough, headaches and a general drained feeling.

What I had failed to acknowledge in that Google search was that climbing and bouldering are not really ‘low intensity’. These sports put stress on the body and mind but not in the most obvious way. A shoe break here and there, or a little rest with a snack and you feel good to go again.

Climbing with a cold resulted in my not climbing for a week because I felt so bad afterwards. If I had just rested up properly for a few days I imagine I would have felt better in a few days.

It’s a lesson learnt anyway 🙂

Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.

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