Exercising and Allergies

Exercising and Allergies
Tim Long

Just like pollution, pollen and other allergy causing air borne particles affect the active person more than the inactive one. It makes sense since you are outside running, cycling, walking, exposed to more particles because you are moving through the air and breathing more deeply.

Pollen is worse between 5:00AM and 10:00AM on warm sunny days (sorry, you early bird cyclists). Rainy and cooler days will lesson the effects of pollen.

If the effects are severe enough, a helpful thing you may try is to take your allergy medicine one hour before going out to exercise. To reduce your risk of allergies after outdoor workouts, experts say always take a shower, wash your hair and put on clean clothes immediately after working out to eliminate further contact with pollen.

Finally, it's also important to remember that if your seasonal allergies are severe, you may have to limit your time outdoors -- to times when pollen counts are at their lowest -- or keep all your workouts indoors, particularly on days when pollen counts are high, and it's warm and windy.