As I write this entry I am in week 13 of P90X and boy have I had a tough few weeks. Why you ask? So glad you care! I came down with a severe cold on day 3 of week 11 that put a halt to my p90x workouts and I was very bummed. I was pretty good about 4 days later but still felt bad so I just redid week 11 the following week. For those who don't know what week 11 is, it is the same routines as in p90x phase I workouts (see earlier p90x blog posts for details on that). And for those not familiar week 12 is doing the Phase 2 routines. Well it turns out I had a sinus infection which has hit me all the way into week 13 of p90x and I was down with a fever for 3 days before going to the doctors and now on antibiotics.
So the question to anyone else out there who gets sick on p90x, "What do you do when sick on p90x?" And I have a number of possible solutions for you, because thats what I did and I can tell you from first hand experience wtf to avoid and what to go after. Read on...
As I already explained in my intro paragraphs, I think many people will have this problem as it's 3 months of your life (for me its 14 weeks as my intro said I had to redo week 11). Here are things you can do and I will explain where or not I think it is a good idea.
Screw it and work out through the illness - I did this really over the course of week 11 through today which is into week 13. I can tell you if you end up having a bacterial infection (sinus for me) you will totally drain yourself. P90X is hard enough as it is but when your body is trying to fight off a viral or bacterial infection this is double hard. You can do this, but trust me, you will be even more miserable.
Take the week off and repeat the week - This is how I started (but did not finish) and I did get better...sort of. I got down to just a sore throat and cough when I repeated week 11 and I was fine all the way through to day six of week 12 when the infection caught up to me and down with a 101 fever and awful feeling. Normally this way would have worked best to rest and repeat lost days/weeks, just my infection has lasted three weeks because I never went to the doctor
Quit P90X - Hell no! I did consider it and if it had happened to me earlier on, who knows...? Butno way was I going to quit and my wife thinks I am crazy to workout even now that I am on antibiotics but I must finish p90x I am so close!!!
Restart P90x from Day One - If you end up getting sick in the first 4-5 weeks this is what I recommend and hope you can then go 90 days with out getting sick,which for many of us is hard to do. You are so early and your body will still be fatigued from your cold I think it best to reset and start again. You are not losing a thing and in fact should be better off for it as you are already in the process of getting in shape.
So to recap P90x week 11 and 12 I am down to 218 pounds and feeling pretty good considering the hell of being sick and doing p90x workouts! haha! It was tough, but I just can't give up, BRING IT!