Exercise Makes Me Sick.

I think I would find a new gym to try for a week to see if it was the gym. Maybe a mold issue or something with the ventilation.

I don't think the exercise is making you sick...exercise, if anything, helps boost immunity. My guess would be that despite your use of sanitizers and soap, you are getting sick from people and germs at the gym. Sorry! Boost up on the vitamin C and wear sweatbands, etc, to avoid touching your face while you are there, and then wash your hands, go home and shower!

Anytime you go to a new place you pick up new germs - from the door knobs, from the equipments, everything you touch.
After you touch a surface, you're sweating, and it's easy to rub your face, get the sweat out of your eyes without even knowing you are doing it, and wha-la - you are infected.
It takes time to build up an immunity to it.

This is a time to call your doctor. There seem to be particularly nasty bugs having fun all over the country. Talk to your doctor, let him/her check up on you, and follow orders. There are a whole lot of people (and the germs they bring) at the gym. But you can't stay away from those bugs completely. Good for you for wanting to improve your health! Getting sick at the gym sounds like an oxymoron....

Wipe down the surfaces that you touch at the gym before you start your workout. That should reduce your exposure to germs. Then, boost your immune system - my go-to routine during cold and flu season is krill oil, vitamin D, vitamin C, echinachea & goldenseal (you can get those in one pill) and garlic tablets. Then if I feel something coming on I add in olive leaf extract and oil of oregano, which both have anti-viral properties. Your body may be stressed from the combination of increased exercise and the increased exposure to germs. With a little help and prevention, your immune system should grow stronger as your fitness level increases and you might not need to take such precautions and supplements but for now, give your system the extra prevention and support it needs until it can kick into high gear.

Good luck and good job - keep up the great work!

I'm thinking a number of possibilities. Perhaps overuse of antibacterial products at home, as has been suggested. Perhaps UNDER-use of cleaning products at the gym, not wiping down the equipment before you use it as well as afterwards. If you wipe the sweat from your face or push your hair out of your eyes, your hands are near your nose and mouth. Take a small towel with you (like a hand towel) and use that - hang it over the rail of the treadmill or whatever else you are using.

You can also boost your immune system which you may need to do. I can give you more info. Almost everyone in the country is nutrient-deficient even if they "eat well" - the nutrition just isn't in the food anymore (not just the processed foods, but the whole foods and veggies/fruits as well). It's a massive problem, between deficient soils and GMO foods and all the other techniques that are making us so sick.

Also, the gym could have a serious mold problem - a lot of buildings do, and it's even more possible in a building filled with showers and humidity. So you may have a cold and you may have allergies to serious mold issues. We've had major problems in 2 schools in our town with tons of sick people especially kids and teachers - some of it has to do with construction and some of it with location (e.g. near a swamp). So a gym can have those problems as well.

You also need to hydrate a lot more than you probably are - don't wait until you are thirsty. There are a few good hydrators out there - but none available in a grocery store (e.g. Gatorade, Vitamin Water are all loaded with sugar and sodium and artificial dyes, so avoid them like the plague). There are a few things you can buy from food science companies and one that I know has been used in clinical trials with cancer patients so it's definitely safe and viewed as being the most effective - look for US government patent and let me know if you can't find it.

Two possibilities - A friend of mine and her son both have exercise induced asthma. She was trying to jog, and he was in a sport at school. It took a long while to figure out because it was a lot like getting a cold. All gross and lingery. They have medication now, and can run and kick balls with little issue.

The other possibility is that it isn't the workouts, but the gym itself. Gyms are like schools - lots of people, lots of germs. You could be sick because of the gym. People breathing hard everywhere. Hand sanitizer doesn't stop you from inhaling airborne illnesses.

put gloves on before you leave the house and do not take them off until you get home

do you use a lot of antibacterial products at home? if so, your resistance may be lowered, causing you to be more susceptible to the types of bugs that tend to lurk at gyms.
we have, as a human herd, made it harder on ourselves to be part of a herd.
that being said, all gyms are not created equal. some are shockingly lax about basic cleaning.
try taking some wipes to the gym with you and giving the equipment a swab before you use it. if you keep getting sick, you may need to switch gyms. it's hard to be sure at this point if it's a lax gym cleaning policy or your own not-sufficiently-robust immune system that's at fault.
but it's certainly not the exercise.
khairete
S.

You don't sit in a steam room or sauna when you are done with your workout do you? I've heard those are huge breeding grounds for passing around bugs.

I would call the doc just to make sure all is well. I would also try a diff gym as someone else suggested there could be something at THAT gym making you sick.

1. Working out doesn't make you sick, germs do. Using soap and sanitizer doesn't stop airborne viruses. Try taking some Vitamin D3 and C to boost your immune system.

2. Slow down. Start with some good walking instead of going straight to the elliptical and bike. Walk for a few weeks and THEN add elliptical, bike, stairmachine, etc.

Best,

C. Lee