Why Am I Getting Sick More Often After Deadlifts/Squats

How come I am getting more sick after doing my big lifts— deadlifts, or squats?

I have noticed this trend for a while now.

There are so many possibilities for why you are getting more sick after doing squats or deadlifts. Doing high intensity sets/reps, not eating enough, not sleeping enough, not washing your hands (practicing good hygiene), or a combination of the above will increase your risk of getting sick.

Feeling sick a day after weightlifting

Feeling feverish after a day of working out?

Feel like you are getting flu-like symptoms after working out?

I remember those days… boy did those days sucked.

How come this happens?

One symptom you may feel is that your body is hot and tender after a very strenuous workout.

(This may explain my sudden loss of strength in my bench press too!)

Under a moderate workout, your body is able to control inflammation.

But when you work out harder and for longer periods of time, you may feel like your body is broken.

This is a normal response and you should allow your body to continue to rebuild itself in time for the next workout session.

But if you are actually feeling flu-like or cold-like symptoms, your body is also fighting pathogens in addition to rebuilding all the damaged muscles in your body.

This double-duty puts a lot of stress on your body, which reveals to you any symptoms of issues or by-products of synthesis.

How many days rest after deadlifts?

(This is if you are not sick).

You will need 72 hours of rest to recover after a heavy session of deadlifts before you hit legs or back again.

According to research, 72 hours is the optimal amount of time where your body is fully recovered, according to the supercompensation curve.

If you are sick, you need to rest until you are no longer feeling sick before you even think about strength training again.

(Maybe you can take this time to recover from your sore upper back from squats.)

Bodybuilding and I keep getting sick

If you are bodybuilding, you are probably going at least going to a commercial gym because your program requires you to do a certain amount of exercise and demands a certain amount of equipment.

Depending on your program, you could be working out intensely with high volume, high intensity sets.

Or you could be taking a more conservative approach, doing moderate intensity with high weights.

This will keep your rest times low and your pump at an all-time high.

Nothing wrong with that.

So, let us go over why you may be getting sick doing either one of these workouts.

• Related: Post workout burger good for gains?

Getting sick after strenuous exercise

This may be a result of exercise-induced nausea if you are feeling sick immediately after working out.

This is a possibility but it is probably not what you are looking for.

You are talking about feeling hot and slow, sluggish even after working out.

This would be about 12-36 hours after your workout.

If you are taking over your training and giving it your all every session, doing very strenuous work for a long period of time will temporarily suppress your immune system.

But why is that?

First and foremost, have you been eating healthy and sleeping more than 8 hours a day?

If you are like most young adults, you have been staying up late and eating junk food during the day.

These bad habits will restrict your body’s ability to recover and adapt to your training stimulus.

In addition to these concerns, have you been practicing good hygiene?

Are you washing your hands?

Do you rub your eyes and nose after visiting and touching public property, like a school, library, public transportation or corporate office?

You may not be aware of it but your body is fighting disease and illnesses all the time.

You only get sick when your body is unable to fend off all the bacteria and viruses.

So, if you are feeling under the weather after a workout, only slept 6 hours each day for the entire week, and are a student in a local college, you may have a variety of causes that contribute to your symptoms.

But let us say, you eliminate all the external concerns—

• Your eating is great.
• Your sleep is excellent.
• You are in a bubble all the time and you make sure you are practicing good hygiene.

Is working out hard making me sick?

The answer is, you are feeling a symptom of your body recovering.

When your muscle breaks down from training, your body reacts by releasing human growth hormones (HGH) which are produced by your pituitary gland which is located at the base of your brain.

When large amounts of HGH are produced due to an intense training workout, you may feel sick.

In addition to that, you may feel the sickest right after you wake up from your sleep.

Here’s why.

You are currently about 7-10 hours dehydrated and fasted while your body is trying to repair itself.

• Related: Should you work out on 5 hours of sleep?

These are three stressors you face every time you wake up after a good rest.

And do you notice that most of the time, you feel better after eating a hearty breakfast and having something to drink?

There is nothing to worry about.

Feeling sick after moderate exercise

So, your rest times are low, your intensity is not that high and you are still feeling ill.

Sounds like a head scratcher to me!

Just kidding.

While you are exercising and training in a bodybuilding style, your workout is most likely not the issue.

(Make sure you are rotating exercises— do you know skullcrusher alternatives?)

You are not doing everything else right.

What do I mean by that?

• You are not sleeping enough. Be honest.
• You are not eating properly.
• You are under a lot of stress.
• You are not washing your hands after the gym.
• You are touching your eyes, mouth, noses, ears, etc.
• You have been hanging out with a lot of sick people.

Any single one of these factors can throw off your balance.

A combination of these factors will also do the trick.

The body is fragile yet it is very resilient.

It can resist and protect you from some of the most dangerous illnesses and stressors in life.

Yet, it is also very soft and easy to harm as well.

Make sure you get your life in order outside the gym.

You will be grateful for it years down the line.

Cold chills, fevers, overly-achy a few hours after working out

I have felt this before and I had mixed feelings about it.

I was glad that I had a great workout and I knew I gave it my all.

At the same time, it sucks to feel “sick” even though you know that you are not sick.

So, what gives?

Am I sick if this happens?

Again, it is difficult to say without knowing the full scope of your life but we always give you what we know.

This is probably from an illness bug, the cold, or the flu.

If you have been training for a while and nothing happens, then all of sudden you have a hard training week and you feel all these flu-like symptoms afterward?

(Don't get me started about my lats not growing!)

In addition to making sure you eat and rehydrate, your body cannot properly defend itself from the cold bug attack.

So, you are getting sick.

Should you exercise when sick is a whole topic that would take another post to address.

Back to the original topic, I did some research online and found very similar trends.

People tend to notice when they are about to get sick.

You can tell.

But despite what you think you should do, you will try again and attempt a hard workout, knowing well what the consequences are— your body will not be able to fend off the cold bug.

High body temperature hours after exercise

Are you sweating under the blankets?

Do you find yourself very warm HOURS after exercising and coming home from the gym?

What is the reason for this?

Many lifters and even people across all the different sports - running, hiking, biking, etc, have similar symptoms hours after their training session.

So, what gives?

I decided to do some research on this as well since I too felt these symptoms.

I found that the web does not have any idea why this may be but there was some data explaining the cause for this sensation.

Researchers believe that is due to one thing— your body’s attempt to repair tissues.

(Hopefully, your body can fix a sore upper back from deadlifts too!)

Your immune system is working, and your body requires enzymes to repair all your muscle damage.

As a result, you will feel warm, swelling, and even some redness during this time period.

This heat serves a dual purpose.

It allows your body to quickly repair any damages as well as restrict any diseases from growing in the targetted location.

Muscle pain and fever after a workout

The muscle pain you are experiencing is probably Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, DOMS for short.

It is your body’s way of telling you that you have exceeded the amount of training stimulus you can handle and now it is currently in the process of rebuilding itself.

This is a good thing for anyone looking to get stronger, bigger, and faster.

Symptoms, such as fever are usually signs of a bacterial or viral infection.

In the blurbs above, I mentioned many signs that lifters should be aware of before pointing the blame at their workout.

Everyone is always carrying germs, whether you are aware of them or not.

Your body is constantly fighting again infections and you may be getting sick if you recently hit a difficult workout that makes you feel excessively tired, sleepy, or weak.

Are deadlifts hard on your body?

Yes, deadlifts are hard on the body especially when you lift above 90% of your 1RM.

Deadlifts create neurological, psychological, and physical stress that your body has to recover from.

That being said, deadlifts are not unhealthy; they need to be done in a strategic way and for the right reasons.

If you are not a powerlifter or Strongman, adding deadlifts into your routine is questionable. 

Even the pro athlete can find more carryover with different exercises that are less taxing to the body.

Here are a bunch of alternatives in order to decrease your strength training mileage—

1. Belt squats
2. Reverse hypers
3. 45 degree back extensions
4. Box squats

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