Can exercise boosts your immune system?
people only have a small number of immune cells circulating around the body. Those cells prefer to hang out in lymphoid tissues and organs like the spleen, where your body kills viruses, bacteria, and other microorganisms that cause disease. Because exercise increases blood and lymph flow as your muscles contract, it also increases the circulation of immune cells, making them roam the body at a higher rate and at higher numbers, says Nieman.
While you do get an immediate response from your immune system when you exercise, that will eventually go away—unless, that is, you keep working out consistently. “If you go out for 45 minutes of exercise the next day, this all happens again. Exercise really is a housekeeping activity, where it helps the immune system patrol the body and detect and evade bacteria and viruses,” Nieman says. So, you can’t necessarily exercise one day here, and you expect to have an illness-clearing immune system. Come back for more movement on the regular, though, and your immune system is better prepared to wipe out sickness-causing germs.
Another benefit of exercise is that it decreases inflammation in the body—which, in turn, can also improve immunity. In fact, some research, like the 2004 study in the links decreased levels of inflammatory markers to those that exercise more often and have higher fitness levels. And Nieman says that goes hand-in-hand with immunity. “When immune cells try to function with inflammation, it puts the immune system in a chronically inflamed state too,” he says, which makes it harder to fight infection. To cut down on inflammation, kick up your activity level.
What's the best type of exercise to
boost your immunity?
Most studies, including Nieman’s, looked at the aerobic activity—think walking, running, or cycling. To gain the benefits, it’s best to push the pace a bit when walking. “For most people, we’re talking about a 15-minute mile,” Neiman says of the average pace that led to promising results in his studies. “That’s sufficient stimulus to recruit immune cells into circulation.” For other forms of exercise, aim to reach about 60% of your VO2max or about 70% of yours. The same goes for strength training—it likely helps your immune system, but there are less research and recent studies backing up its benefits on immunity., CSCS, assistant professor of exercise science and physiology at Kent State University, who has also studied exercise and the immune response, touts resistance training as a smart strategy for improving immunity. However, he does caution against severe muscle-damaging workouts, like lifting super heavy or doing eccentric exercises ( so that the muscle repair process doesn’t compete with your immune function. So, unless you've regularly been keeping up with a workout like CrossFit, now's probably not the time to start a new high-impact strength routine.
Can exercise harm your immune system at all?
Like all good things in life, science says you can overdo exercise. Pushing yourself too hard for too long can actually put you at a higher risk of infection—but you have to go pretty far past that “acute” level of training to experience negative side effects.
For example, most studies that found that extreme exercise can increase the risk of illness examined marathon runners, like Nieman's 1990 study published in the Fitness. But Nieman says this negative effect can come into play if you're running at a high intensity for at least a half-marathon distance or cycling or swimming at a tough pace for about 90 minutes. Any of these longer, more intense activities can cause stress on the body that could lead to lowered immune function. “You put yourself in a stressful state, so your immune system reflects that and leads to dysfunction that can last anywhere from a few hours to a few days,” Nieman says. Basically, high-intensity activity for more than an hour might not be the best idea right now if you’re really focusing on keeping your immune system in top shape.
Exactly how long and how hard you can push yourself before you reach that excessive and intense level of exercise ultimately comes down to how well you’re trained, but you might want to focus on maintenance rather than intensity in these pandemic times. “Moderate intensity is the best route right now, but maintaining that activity, in some form or fashion, is going to be key,” Jajtner adds.
Moderate exercise can boost your
immunity right now—but don't overdo it.
Nieman views this pandemic as a golden opportunity to start a regular walking program—a time to nail down the habit of frequent physical activity. While other lifestyle habits like eating fruit, managing stress, and getting quality sleep can also help reduce risk of illness, Nieman says exercise is potential “the most powerful habit that people can adopt right now as we’re coping with this new and novel virus.”
If you’re super new to exercise (and have your doc’s approval to start a fitness program), Jajtner suggests going out for even just 10 minutes, two to four times a day. Then work on gradually increasing that time. Or try a low-impact workout at home, if you’re in a crowded city and have fewer opportunities to get outdoors.
Even if you are exercising, don’t forget that your best defense against getting COVID-19 is limiting your risk of catching it by practicing social-distancing and frequently washing your hands. “Reducing your exposure to the virus is number-one, it rises above everything,” Nieman says. “Social-distancing and good hygiene must always be paramount...but I can’t emphasize enough the importance of everyone being healthy and focusing on good immunity too.”
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