Numerous studies into exercise and immunity show that regular modest exercise boosts immunity. In general the fitter you are, the stronger your immune system with the three main strands of immunity being strengthened through exercise.
But what happens when we overdo things?
Once your exercise is demanding on a regular basis then you start to turn a corner and your chance of infection and illness increases. After just one single, hard exercise session the immune system drops – this means regular hard training sessions can create a 3hr to 3 day window where you are more susceptible to infection, especially upper respiratory tract. So how can you manage your training to reduce the chances of falling ill?
There are numerous training models and platforms designed to help you plan your training and incorporate enough rest to minimise illness and injury while maximising your fitness gains. Most athletes, particularly elites, use a periodisation model eg. traditional, block, polarisation and even reverse periodisation, and the choice tends to come down to athlete, coach, goals, racing schedule and lifestyle. Just remember that it is the long rides and runs that tend to damage the immune system, specifically by suppressing natural killer cells (which fight and kill illness such as viruses).
What can you do?
One popular method is polarisation, otherwise known as 80:20 or low heart rate training. This simply means around 75-85% of your training is at low intensity – up to around 78/79% of your hr max, or your ventilatory threshold, and it seems to work just as well whether you’re training 4 times a week or 14. This is a guideline hence the 10% range, but best not to stray much outside of that range. And don’t worry too much about working out your percentages, an easy way to measure is simply the number of sessions eg. if you do 4 bike weeks pw then only one of those is hard, especially important for older athletes who need a bit more recovery time. And where do we see this type of training the most – among the elites. Maybe amateur athletes could learn a lot from them.
Interval sessions will also go in the hard category, regardless of absolute time. And remember reps do not have to be so hard that you’re ready to throw up on the side of the road or track – over 90% of hrm or a 9+/10 rpe will do the trick. Short and fast with plenty of recovery to maintain the quality, or speed, of each rep.
The key things are to make the easy stuff easy, and the hard stuff hard
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