Returning to exercise after any physical setback is hard. You trust yourself to listen to your body, but it’s also tempting to go back outside before you’ve fully recovered. However, getting back into your exercise routine too soon can cause more harm than good:Y This is especially true when it comes to the Long-term effects from COVID-19.
According to Dr Michael Fredericson in daily health, “resuming physical activity after having COVID-19 has an additional layer of complexity due to the potential for complications, such as myocarditis”, which is inflammation of the heart muscle. And with all the uncertainties and complications surrounding “long COVID,” extra caution is needed.
After a positive case, it may not be possible to tell the difference between a prolonged COVID and a “regular” COVID case (ouch!) that is taking its sweet time to resolve. In addition to the cost to your body, there’s also the mental frustration of feeling like you can’t reach your fitness goals. Below, We delve into what we know and don’t know about prolonged COVID, the current state of post-COVID recommendations for athletes, and how to mentally deal with fitness setbacks.
We have a lot to learn about the long COVID
Whether you’re a serious athlete or a casual gym goer, no one wants to be a COVID “long-distance traveler” experiencing prolonged symptoms of the virus. These persistent complications include blood clots in the arteries and inflammation of the heart. Some athletes have also reported fatigue and breathing problems that persist after they have recovered from COVID-19.
Unfortunately, prolonged COVID is still difficult to define, and more time is needed to properly study and understand it. The symptoms of long-term COVID overlap with those of other conditions, including what used to be called chronic fatigue syndrome. At the moment, we have general guidelines to exercise caution when exercising post-COVID.
Guidelines for returning to exercise after having COVID
The next Guidelines for returning to exercise they were created by a team of doctors at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. (One of the authors, Jordan Metzl, has also written about the reasoning behind these guidelines in the New York Times.) Among the recommendations:
- If you were previously healthy and had a mild case of the virus, you may want to consider returning to exercise after you’ve been symptom-free for seven days.
- Expect to take about a month after that before going back to your full training schedule.
- If you have a heart or lung condition, consult a doctor before returning to exercise.
- Stop exercising and see a doctor if your symptoms return, especially chest pain, fever, palpitations, or shortness of breath.
In our previous coverage of how to safely return to exercise after having COVID-19, Senior Health Editor at Lifehacker Beth Skwarecki explained that
The recommendation to build up gradually suggests starting with only half your normal volume of conditioning activities (so if you’re a runner, this could be half your normal amount of exercise). The guidelines are not specific to weightlifting, but the authors point to a set of guidelines not specific to COVID which also recommends starting easy when you return to the weight room and gradually working your way up.
These guidelines were written before the appearance of the delta variant, but still apply to cases caused by the various variants, he says. James N. Robinson, M.D., senior sports medicine physician at HSS in New York City and a co-author of the paper.
Additional recommendations for athletes
In this summary of the current recommendations for athletes To return to physical activity safely after COVID-19, the researchers found that the expert consensus is to refrain from any exercise until at least 10 rest days from symptom onset, including a minimum of seven days without symptom. At that point, you can begin a “gradual return” to exercise.
If you’re looking for some concrete benchmarks to get back on track, here are some tips culled from the American College of Sports Medicine:
- Make sure you can easily perform activities of daily living and walk 500 meters on a flat surface without experiencing excessive fatigue or shortness of breath.
- Initial physical activity should consist of light exercise for 15 minutes.
- If post-COVID energy levels are reached, the duration of activity can be increased, followed by resumption of bodyweight exercise such as yoga or resistance training with sufficient rest.
- You can follow increased resistance and sport-specific training.
For the most up-to-date information on how to get back into exercise, see this site for the latest study on return to strenuous activity after COVID infection.
Coping with prolonged symptoms
Each person recovers from COVID-19 at a unique rate, and there is currently no formula to determine exactly how and when an individual should return to activity.
Long-haul shippers experience the unique frustration of battling symptoms that just won’t go away. You’ve heard advice to “listen to your body” and “trust your instincts,” but what happens when your body refuses to return to peak performance?
While we await more research on how to deal with prolonged COVID, it may help to address its invisible symptoms, such as fatigue, as if they were a tangible injury, for example, A broken ankle. You wouldn’t treat a broken ankle by “pushing” it and hitting the pavement like usual. Instead, he would understand that allowing time for a full recovery is necessary for his long-term goals.
Similarly, it will not help you “get over” the symptoms of COVID-19. The current medical consensus is to wait until all symptoms are gone, but I understand that sounds unrealistic when your symptoms have no end in sight. So if you’re still struggling with prolonged problems with fatigue and headaches, try practicing the same gentleness and forced patience you would with a broken ankle. you need to recover now so can you go back to your old self the long-term
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