Immunity-Boost Training - By Joe Lightfoot

Introduction

Your body is continually exposed to pathogens that can cause disease. Your immune system acts to defend you against these pathogens. Most of the time it does this without you even knowing about it. Pretty cool eh?

In this article I’m going to briefly explore the immune system, its role in keeping you healthy and the effect training has on immunity. Don’t worry, I won’t ramble on about T-helper cells, immunoglobulin, or any other immune jargon, instead I’ll discuss practical aspects of immunity, and the things you can do to stay healthy, and train optimally to reach your goals.


The Immune System

The stages of disease occurrence are invasion, multiplication, spread and production of disease (1). In order to prevent this sequence of events from happening our body (when functioning optimally) identifies an invading pathogen and mounts a response. Your body has a variety of mechanisms to deal with pathogens, and some of the key players are cells including lymphocytes, neutrophils and macrophages.


Effect of training on immunity

The immune system is very closely linked to the endocrine and nervous system, so it’s unsurprising that training has a large effect on immunity (2). In fact training is a quantifiable model of stress, and the changes on the immune system can be tracked following exercise. Epidemiological data suggests that athletes are susceptible to infections in the period of time following heavy blocks of training, particularly endurance athletes (2).

A J-curve can demonstrate the effect of training, with studies reporting a raised incidence of upper respiratory tract infections with sedentary and extreme activity, whilst moderate activity leads to the lowest level of subsequent infections.


Figure 1: The incidence of Upper Respiratory Tract Infections versus the intensity of training


This pattern can be explained by mapping the concentrations of immune cells during and after exercise, which vary depending on exercise volume and intensity. With high intensity training the volume of one particular cell involved in the immune response called lymphocytes is suppressed. This in part is due to the role of cortisol, which rises after prolonged exercise and can impair the immune system. But there are multiple factors at play, which impair immune function (2).


So should we train moderately all the time to stay healthy?

Fortunately, I don’t think so. I think the key to achieving results, whilst not getting ill is to train hard, but rest just as hard. Long periods of hard training will undoubtedly affect your immune system, but fluctuation from one extreme to another will ensure results and progress in your training. Taking care to actively recover and rest will ensure your immune system is functioning optimally, keeping you healthy.


You’re not always going to feel awesome

We all have days when the weights in the gym feel light, but on the other hand we’ve all had days where we feel terrible. That’s life. You get ill when you pass off the left of the below curve (Figure 2). Not every training day is going to be a good one. Those who make the most progress are the ones who recognise this and map their training accordingly.

On any given day you may feel anything from awful to awesome, with poor, OK and good in between. An average person will probably feel OK about 60% of the time, and awful and awesome on occasion. If you plotted a graph for a year, it’d probably end up looking something like this:



Figure 2: The distribution of how you feel pre-workout


But who wants to be average? I believe that this curve is dependent on your lifestyle and the training decisions you make. Someone who eats crap food and doesn’t get much sleep will probably have a curve that shifts to the left (red line on figure 3). Where as someone who takes care of themselves, eats well and gets plenty of good quality sleep will have a curve, which shifts to the right (blue line on figure 3). Shifting the curve to the right means the percentage of good days you have per year will increase, and the likelihood of getting ill will decrease.





Figure 3: The distribution of how you feel pre-workout. Red if you don’t take care of yourself, Blue if you do.


So how do you shift to the right?

Feeling healthy and avoiding illness isn’t a one-stop shop. Simply taking a supplement won’t make a great deal of difference if you eat like crap and don’t take time to recover. Health is an accumulation of actions, which together result in an optimal immune system and a healthy individual. Here’s how you can shift your curve to the right.


Regulate training intensity and volume

Again coming back to the normal distribution of how you feel on a training day – you need to pick your battles. Feel awesome? Then pile on the plates and get some work done. However if you feel like crap, don’t go nuts, get some quality lifting or training done and leave without killing yourself. Yes, you have to work hard, but just beasting yourself and expecting results is stupid. When I coach I prefer a sniper rifle to a shotgun. I can be more accurate, but still kick your ass when I need to.

Note I didn’t say, don’t train hard, I’m just saying don’t attempt any 1RM’s when you’re below par.


Deload if you need to

I hope you all incorporate deloads into your training plans. If not you’re missing out on one of the most important concepts, which will improve your results. Getting ill is you body’s way of enforcing a deload, but by being smart you can choose to deload before you’re forced too.

For those who don’t know, a deload is a period of time when you drop the intensity and/or volume of a training session to allow recovery. Knowing when to deload is key, as if you deload too much you are missing out on valuable training time, whilst if you deload too little, you will stagnant and possibly regress. If you find your training curve shifting to the left, it’s probably time to deload.

Other signs you need to deload include:

• Symptoms of illness and feel run down
• Weights feel unusually heavy and motivation is low
• Lack of appetite
• Decreased sex drive
• Trouble sleeping and waking up

Think of deloading as a period of time not to recover from what you’ve done, but as a period of time to recover for what you are going to do.



Nutrition

If you eat crap food, then don’t expect to be healthy. Sorry to be blunt but it’s true. An optimal immune system requires an optimal diet. Now I’m not going to get into the specifics of diet, as I believe it depends on the individual, and their goals. But here’s a clue – if your diet consists of ample lean protein (protein malnutrition has been linked to poor immunity(3)), tons of fruit and vegetables (again, this is linked to being healthy and avoiding disease), plenty of healthy fats and carbohydrates from unrefined resources your on the right track.

Avoid what disagrees with you and chow down on what makes you feel and look good and perform even better. It’s that simple.



Sleep

How sleep deprivation affects immunity is not exactly known, but the link between a lack of sleep and impaired immunity is obvious. Less than 7 hours sleep a night is linked to a higher risk of infection. Furthermore the sleep needs to be good quality, with people who work at night having a greater incidence of infections than people who work in the day. Chronic sleep loss has the greatest impact on immunity, but luckily recovery sleep can restore immunity (4). So make sure you get enough good quality sleep, and if you feel run down make sure sleep is a priority.


Supplements and specifics

I know I said I wasn’t going to discuss specific nutrients, but there is some great research backing the inclusion of certain key nutrients. Just get everything else in order before you worry about specifics.


Post-workout shake

Following intense and prolonged exercise, a post-workout shake containing carbohydrate has been shown to reduce the incidence of subsequent infections. So while a lot of you will be using carbohydrates post workout to refuel and aid in muscle gain, you’re also getting the added benefit of better immune function (5).

Zinc
Zinc is vital for immune function, and people who train are often deficient in this key mineral. A Zinc deficiency is associated with impaired immunity and decreased resistance to pathogens (6)(7). Zinc is also linked to testosterone levels, with deficiency linked to low serum testosterone. You can get Zinc from food sources such as oysters, liver, pumpkin seeds and peanuts, but supplementation is also an option.

Omega 3’s
The balance of omega 3 to omega 6 fats is vital to an optimal immune system. In the developed world due to the foods we eat, the ratio is skewed in the direction of omega 6’s, which has be shown to impair the immune system. Increasing consumption of omega-3’s via food sources such as oily fish, or a supplement is a wise choice.

Coconut Oil
Besides being unbelievably good on scrabbled eggs, coconut oil has added immune benefits. In studies it has been reported that it has strong anti-microbial effects and improves immune system function.




Glutamine
Theoretically, supplementing with glutamine should improve immune system function. Glutamine is an important fuel for certain cells involved in the immune response, and during exercise levels of glutamine fall. However the literature displays a mixed picture, with some research showing a reduced incidence of infections whilst others report no benefit. I’d consider supplementing if you are training particularly intensely, or are involved in endurance sports and see if it benefits you.

Training when you’re ill
We’ve already established that training intensity is linked to immune function, with an intense training session resulting in immune impairment. However training intensity and creating a training effect are not directly correlated. You can still make progress without having maximum intensity.

You may have heard some people say – train hard or go home, whilst others will tell you to rest in bed as soon as you get a sniffle, for fear of overtraining. However, like most things in the fitness industry a stance in the middle and dependent on individual circumstances usually works.

How do you know when to train? I’ve found a general rule of thumb is you can always do one more thing that you think you can. If you feel well enough to do the warm up, then you’re probably good to do one weightlifting exercise. If you don’t feel like going to the gym at all, then you probably will be good for the warm up. However if you feel like crap, then see your doctor, and rest!

If you do want to do something when feeling ill then it should be short and low intensity. I find a short walk followed by a few mobility and activation exercises, which address postural and flexibility deficits, allows me to make progress and do something active, whilst not impairing my immune system.

Knowing the intensity you can train at on any given day is an art more than a science, but over time you learn to read your body and know what you can get away with.

When you’re ill keep your nutrition on track, get plenty of sleep and drink plenty of fluids. It’s general advice that I’m guessing you’ve all heard from your mum at some point! Know when to rest. Get better and come back another day.

The bottom line
Being ill sucks. But by taking care of yourself, and training smart you can for the most part avoid getting ill. Being healthy is the key to performing consistently well.

If you do get ill, then be smart about how you recover. Take care of the little things and you’ll soon be fighting fit. But be honest; don’t use the fact you’re not feeling awesome to deload for the fourth time that month. At some point you’ve got to train hard. It’s like the difference between being hurt and being injured. You can play hurt, but if you’re injured, then get off the field.

So are you ill or just a little under the weather?


References:

1. Wood P. Understanding Immunology. 2nd Edition. Prentice Hall. 2006
2. Pedersen, BK. Hoffman-Goetz. Exercise and the Immune System: Regulation, Integration, and Adaptation. Physiology Review. 2000 vol. 80 no. 3 1055- 1081
3. Larbi A, Franceschi C, Mazzatti D, Solana R, Wikby A, Pawelec G. Aging of the Immune System as a Prognostic Factor for Human Longevity. Physiology. 2008. 23(2):64-74.
4. Bryant, PA. Trinder, J. Curtis, N. Sick and tired: does sleep have a vital role in the immune system?  Nature Reviews Immunology. 2004. (4)457-467.
5. NIEMAN, DC. BISHOP, NC. Nutritional strategies to counter stress to the immune system in athletes, with special reference to football. Journal of Sports Sciences. 2006; 24(7): 763 – 772
6. Barnett JB, Hamer DH, Meydani SN. Low zinc status: a new risk factor for pneumonia in the elderly? Nutrition Reviews. 2010. 68(1):30-37.
7. Prasad A. Zinc in Human Health. Mol. Med. 2008. 14(5-6):1.

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