4 Reasons You’re Coughing Up Mucus After Exercise
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4 Reasons You're Coughing Up Mucus After Exercise

4 Reasons You're Coughing Up Mucus After Exercise
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Updated on August 28, 2025
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Crushing your mile time or hitting a new max during a set of dead lifts calls for a celebration. Unfortunately, for some people, this post-workout time is spent ridding their body of excess phlegm.

Your body's defense system is what causes excess mucus in the lungs and other areas like your nose, mouth, stomach, and intestines. Your body creates mucus to trap and then excrete potentially harmful bacteria, viruses, and dust.

If you're coughing up mucus after exercise, there are a few reasons this might be happening. To help you get to the bottom of your excessive phlegm, here are some common reasons why you might cough up phlegm after exercise.

1. You Have Allergic Rhinitis

If you're susceptible to environmental or seasonal allergies, you may find you often cough up phlegm after exercise. Indeed, an indoor or outdoor workout can expose you to allergens like pollen, dust, and mold that can cause mucus.

Exposure to an allergen can cause your blood vessels to swell, resulting in nasal congestion and excess nasal mucus dripping into the back of the throat, and then you'll find yourself coughing up mucus after running or other activities.

One way to minimize the effects of allergic rhinitis is to avoid the allergen. For example, if pollen is the culprit, take your running or cycling indoors when levels are high. Or if you find there's something in your gym that's triggering a reaction, such as mold, you may need to find another place to work out. When exercising at home, make sure the room you're using is dust-free — or at least clean — to reduce symptoms like nasal congestion, coughing, and phlegm after running.

While certain exercise conditions can lead you to cough up phlegm after running without cause for concern, if your symptoms get worse or you can't find relief, talk to your doctor to get to the bottom of your symptoms.

2. You’re Breathing Heavily

When you exercise, you're often breathing faster or more heavily. And this increased respiration in and out of your mouth can dry and cool your airways (especially if you're working out in the cold).

This can trigger your body to produce extra mucus to lubricate dry tissue. The result: coughing up mucus after exercise.

Good hydration before, during, and after an aerobic workout will lessen the chance you’ll need to cough up phlegm after running.

3. You Have a Respiratory Condition

It's not uncommon to hear a fellow gymgoer hacking up a snot rocket on the treadmill, especially during cold season. After all, many people continue to exercise while sick.

An overproduction of mucus during and after exercise may be a sign you’re well on the road to respiratory illness.

 For instance, certain infections like bronchitis can lead to hard phlegm, coughing, and chest congestion, especially during exercise.

Whether or not you should continue exercising while sick depends on your symptoms. In general, if your symptoms are above the neck (a runny nose, sneezing, a minor sore throat, or congestion), it's probably fine to work out.

But if those symptoms creep down your body (aka below the neck, like chest congestion, or nausea from the flu), it's time to take a break and rest.

4. You Have Exercise-Induced Asthma

If you often find yourself wondering why you have so much mucus in your lungs after a workout — especially during cardiovascular exercise — you may want to ask your doctor about exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB).

Formerly referred to as exercise-induced asthma, EIB happens when your airways narrow during physical activity.

 This can lead to symptoms like coughing and shortness of breath, both during and after exercise.
EIB can happen to anyone, not just people with asthma — up to 20 percent of people without asthma have EIB.

 This means that even if you don't have asthma, you can experience symptoms of EIB both during and immediately following exercise, which may be why you get chest congestion after running.
EIB rates increase significantly in patients with asthma: Up to 90 percent of people with an asthma diagnosis also have EIB.

EIB is made worse by cold air, and in some instances, a mask may help to prevent symptoms by minimizing respiratory heat loss. But the best way to deal with persistent EIB is to visit your doctor.

The Takeaway

  • It’s not uncommon to cough up phlegm after exercise.
  • Allergies, heavy breathing, respiratory conditions, and asthma are all reasons you may cough up phlegm after running or other activities.
  • If this is a persistent problem, talk to your doctor about strategies to mitigate it.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
  1. Marvels of Mucus and Phlegm. National Institutes of Health. August 2020.
  2. Allergic rhinitis: Your nose knows. Harvard Health Publishing.
  3. Allergies. Mayo Clinic. August 24, 2024.
  4. Asthma and Exercise. Johns Hopkins Medicine.
  5. Is it OK to exercise if I have a cold? Mayo Clinic. November 18, 2023.
  6. Bronchitis. Mayo Clinic. July 31, 2024.
  7. Exercise-Induced Bronchoconstriction (EIB). American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology.
  8. Goldin J et al. Exercise-Induced Bronchoconstriction. StatPearls. June 2, 2025.
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Michael S. Niederman, MD

Medical Reviewer
From NewYork-Presbyterian, Castle Connolly Top Doctor

Michael S. Niederman, MD, is the lead academic and patient quality officer in the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City; a professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College; and Lauder Family Professor in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. He was previously the clinical director and associate chief in the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Weill Cornell Medical Center. 

His focus is on respiratory infections, especially in critically ill patients, with a particular interest in disease pathogenisis, therapy, and ways to improve patient outcomes. His work related to respiratory tract infections includes mechanisms of airway colonization, the management of community- and hospital-acquired pneumonia, the role of guidelines for pneumonia, and the impact of antibiotic resistance on the management and outcomes of respiratory tract infections.

He obtained his medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine, then completed his training in internal medicine at Northwestern University School of Medicine, before undertaking a pulmonary and critical care fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine. Prior to joining Weill Cornell Medicine, he was a professor in the department of medicine at the State University of New York in Stony Brook and the chair of the department of medicine at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, New York, for 16 years.

Dr. Niederman served as co-chair of the committees that created the American Thoracic Society's 1993 and 2001 guidelines for the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia and the 1996 and 2005 committees that wrote guidelines for the treatment of nosocomial pneumonia. He was a member of the American Thoracic Society/Infectious Diseases Society of America committee that published guidelines for community-acquired pneumonia in 2007. He was also the co-lead author of the 2017 guidelines on nosocomial pneumonia, written on behalf of the European Respiratory Society and the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine.

He has published over 400 peer-reviewed or review articles, and has lectured widely, both nationally and internationally. He was editor-in-chief of Clinical Pulmonary Medicine, is an associate editor of Critical Care and the European Respiratory Review, and serves on the editorial boards of Critical Care Medicine and Intensive Care Medicine. He has previously served on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine and Chest. For six years, he was a member of the Board of Regents of the American College of Chest Physicians, and in 2013, he was elected as a master of the American College of Physicians.

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Sara Lindberg

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Sara Lindberg is a mental health and fitness expert who enjoys writing about health, wellness, online therapy, nutrition, parenting, and education. With a bachelor's degree in exercise science and a master's degree in counseling, she's spent the last 20 years helping people improve both their physical and mental health.

Her writing career began after spending 17 years as a middle school and high school counselor. She takes a special interest in providing readers with easy-to-understand, factual health information that is grounded in science and research.

Her work has appeared in publications such as Healthline, Self, VeryWell Health, VeryWell Fit, Livestrong, Men's Health, SheKnows, Runner's World, and many more.
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