Winter Sickness and how to avoid it

The key to having a productive winter training block is to stay healthy. There’s no point in training hard if you are having to take big breaks out for illness, and there’s even less in battling through on the same training plan because this will only prolong your recovery time. Especially now people are being less vigilant in general with avoiding illness with the widespread risk of the coronavirus receding into memory, it is more important that you keep an eye out for the risks and try to reduce their impact wherever possible.

The key to having a productive winter training block is to stay healthy.

Fortunately, there’s many ways to go about staying healthy, most of which require little change to your everyday habits. The most obvious way to avoid getting ill during the winter is to maintain high standards of hygiene. This can be achieved in a number of ways, primarily through washing your hands often. You should think about this as you go about your daily life as well as when you get off the water and back from training, as it will help to get rid of dirt, viruses and bacteria that would otherwise infect you. More to the point, this is such an easy way to stave off illness you really have no excuse not too. More specifically to rowers, having a change of clothes ready for after your session, whether it was on the water or indoors, is critical to keep warm after training and to avoid creating the warm damp conditions that are ideal for the incubation of diseases. Even if this is a bit more effort than just washing your hands more often, it’s always nice to finish a session and get into a fresh set of clothes regardless of the motivation behind it. Finally on a general hygiene front, try to get into the habit of always showering after a session, to help with all round cleanliness but also because river water has a habit of getting through any number of layers, and this is the best way any to ensure you’ve got rid of any germs that might be lurking.

Another key to staying fit in general is eating a healthy diet, to strengthen your immune system and to feel good in general. According to the British Heart Foundation, the vitamins A, B6, B12, C and D are the most important when fending off illness, all of which can be obtained through a balanced diet. As we get into the proper depths of winter, particularly if you spend a lot of time indoors, it can be beneficial to take vitamin D supplements because this normally comes from the sun. Regarding supplements in general however, and you can get all the nutrients you need from the right food stuffs, and the wrong balance of vitamins can have an overall negative effect, so try to steer clear of them on the whole. In terms of what you should be eating, for breakfast try some fruit, porridge or cereal and an egg. Even if you don’t have much in the mornings, skipping breakfast is highly discouraged by many health professionals so try to make time to have at least something before you start your day. For lunch, vegetables and dark pasta should set you up nicely, with dessert of course. Then in the evening try to get some more protein, maybe from lean meats or pulses and other meat substitutes, with some variety of carbohydrate to balance it out. Throughout the day as well to maintain energy levels, low fat snacks like peanut butter or oat cookies can really perk up the dead time between meals. All year round you should be trying to follow as balanced a diet as possible, but especially in the winter this can really help to keep your immune system strong.

According to the British Heart Foundation, the vitamins A, B6, B12, C and D are the most important when fending off illness

The final way to keep yourself as healthy as possible during the winter is to have a good sleeping schedule. Obviously this can be difficult to achieve, but there are steps that you can take to improve your habits. Your body falls asleep at a slightly lower temperature to how it functions during the day, so sleeping with the window open can help avoid skipping elements of the sleep cycle. It’s common knowledge nowadays that you should try to avoid blue light from phones and laptops before you go to sleep, but this is also increasingly difficult to do. If you can, it’s recommended that you have an hour without any screens before you try to go to sleep in order to maximise the quality, but even just putting your phone down and leaving it down would be better than nothing. 8 hours is the ideal time to be asleep for, as this not only maximises the energy that you will have for the day, but also the time spent in the REM phase of sleep that is responsible for rejuvenation of both physically and mentally. Lastly, getting into to a proper routine of going to bed and waking up at the same time each day has more impact than you would think on the quality of your sleep, and therefore the protection it gives you. I find it helpful to wake up at the same time everyday even if I don’t get up then, because it gets you into a rhythm and tricks you into getting more lie-ins, which is always a bonus.

If you can, it’s recommended that you have an hour without any screens before you try to go to sleep in order to maximise the quality

In general, the most important aspect of staying productive throughout the winter is making sure you take the time off you need to get better. Everyone gets ill even if they are the most hygienic, well-fed and well rested person you know, and recovery is really important for long term fitness. If you just have a bit of a cold, let your coach know and try to maintain a low level of exercise while you get better (this is shown to help speed up recovery time). If you are on any antibiotics or other drugs to help yo get better, just take some time off because at the end of the day it is better to miss a week of training than a month if you make yourself worse- which will almost definitely happen in this case. Overall then, try to stay positive throughout these winter months even with the cold, dark mornings, and remember, it is only 3 weeks until the winter solstice and then the days will start to get longer again and everything will improve!

About The Author

Amelie Sartain

See author's posts