This article I wrote for Nylon has been extremely timely for me… Workout myths, leading with those we have around exercising with a cold. Earlier in January, I had THE WORST cold, and it couldn’t have come at a crappier time (except, maybe, if I had still been sick at Reno. Instead, I just lost my voice thanks to the dry air and altitude, wth…). Anyway, we were FINALLY home for two weeks with a pretty low-key schedule (for us), and I was stoked about getting in some serious workouts on the trainer, snowshoeing, skiing, hitting the gym and lifting heavy, and suddenly, I couldn’t breathe through my damn nose. It was… frustrating. And I was questioning whether I should work out. One workout myth says yes, the other says no. The real answer: somewhere in between. Some days, I realized I was more using my cold as an excuse to skip out on a workout. If I was trying to convince myself to skip the gym, I tried to push myself to do an at-home yoga video or get out for a walk. But a couple of those days, I just let myself *rest.* Even though I probably could have pushed through, I realized if I was trying to rationalize my way out of the workout—and had some symptoms to back it up—I probably was needing a break. For another article (I’ll link to that later), Dr. Michael Ross was reminding me that even a couple hours of training can lead to overtraining symptoms if the rest of our life isn’t in balance—that stuck with me, big time. As the last few months have been hitting me, I’m realizing that even though I’m not at Ironman-training volume anymore, I’m still feeling like I’m cracking under pressure. So, if you’re finding yourself subscribing to similar points of view, or just want to see some other whacky workout myths (ahem, lifting heavy ≠ bulking up), give this article a read. I really needed to write it, so I could re-read it over and over!

Click to read: Should You Exercise With A Cold?And other workout myths debunked 

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