Workout Sick?

There is an argument about whether one should stay away from the gym while they are sick or just tough it out and go regardless.  These are the hard core purists.  To their minds, anything short of the apocalypse is no excuse for missing a workout....and even then you could probably squeeze in a few squats before the four horsemen come riding over the horizon.  

Go...no matter what...no matter how you feel.  

I don't agree with that sentiment.  For one, working out is suppose to be an enjoyable activity.  It's hard for me to enjoy myself when I'm coughing and sneezing and blowing snot all over the dumbbells.  It's also no barrel of monkeys for other people who get exposed to my germs and bodily fluids. 

And that's really what it boils down to...consideration.  If you are sick, stay the fuck home and let yourself heal.  You won't lose all your muscle and gain fifty pounds if you skip a couple of days training.  I'm not sure that it is possible to make any gains when you are running a fever or blowing your breakfast all over the incline bench.  You'll put additional strain on your immune system which will make getting over your sickness take longer.  Plus...you'll probably infect everybody else at the gym with your cold, flu, or whatever.  Something that is sure to make you perceived, not as the do-or-die tough he-man fitness role model, but as the asshole who laid out everybody like some modern day Typhoid Mary.

I have a cold.  I'm staying home.  It sucks but it will pass.  The gym will still be there waiting for me tomorrow.