Topic Overview

Exercise can’t control the HIV infection. But exercise may help you feel better by reducing stress. Exercise may also help your immune system work better.

Exercise:

• Is safe.
• Improves strength and endurance.
• Improves heart and lung fitness.
• May help you feel less tired or fatigued.
• Enhances your sense of well-being.
• May help stabilize or prevent declines in CD4+ cell counts.

Start exercising while you are healthy, and do your best to find new ways to keep yourself motivated to maintain your exercise program.

The ability of a person who has HIV to improve his or her fitness through training is similar to that of a person who does not have HIV. But people with HIV may find it harder to continue with a training program because of fatigue or muscle wasting.

Participation in competitive sports does not pose a risk of spreading HIV to other athletes or coaches. In sports in which exposure to blood can occur, the risk of spreading HIV is very small. But if a person (HIV-infected or not) does start to bleed, he or she should be taken out of the game and the wounds should be covered before the person returns to the game.