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Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "
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11.01.2012 |
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Got a cold? Continue gentle training
All athletes are faced at some point with a familiar dilemma: they've got some kind of bug – a cold, sore throat, or just feeling under the weather. So what should they do? Keep on training? Or rest until their immune system has got rid of the virus? In 1998 sports scientists at Ball State University in the US provided the answer to this question.
At the start of the experiment the researchers infected [inoculation] the subjects with rhinovirus-16 [shown below], a common cold virus. Then they monitored the development of the cold in both groups of subjects.
The graphs below show Z scores, which indicate the amount a measurement at a particular moment deviates from the average of all measurements taken.
"Results from this investigation suggest that moderate exercise training during a rhinovirus-caused upper respiratory illness under the conditions of this study design do not appear to affect illness symptom severity or duration", the researchers conclude. "This finding is important for athletes and fitness enthusiasts alike who are interested in maintenance of their fitness levels during a rhinovirus-caused upper respiratory illness."
Athletes with a cold who train more intensively or for longer than the subjects in this study will probably delay their recovery. The same researchers came to this conclusion in a review article that they published in the nineties. [Int J Sports Med. 1994 Jan; 15(1):1-9.] Intensive exertion inhibits – partly through a rise in cortisol and testosterone levels – the immune system.
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