Covid-19: How To Exercise Safely When Recovering From Coronavirus

After recovering from an illness or accident, it may be necessary to apply some discipline in order to achieve the best results. It might potentially take more time for you to restore your fitness if you dive back into your routines at full pace without giving your body a chance to rest and heal. Perhaps worse, it might result in a reinjury or relapse.

The risk for complications, such as myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle), for those referred to as long haulers who endure chronic COVID-19 symptoms, adds another degree of complexity to starting physical exercise again. Hence, it is important to inculcate working out slowly and gradually. In this article, we discuss how you can reincorporate a healthy workout routine post-covid.

Tips on safely exercising post-covid recovery:

1. Be slow and persistent

Your past level of activity will determine how you should begin exercising following COVID-19. For the majority of people, you should begin with a simple walking program and progressively increase your walking tolerance. Once you've done that for a few weeks, you can add in more strenuous cardio, but only to the point where your heart rate is somewhat higher than it was when you were walking. A stationary cycle, treadmill, or taking up a sport like swimming would be good places to start. If during the course of a few weeks you could gradually increase the intensity, handle it, and still feel fine, you may resume.

2. Avoid exercising if you are still experiencing symptoms

The most crucial thing to keep in mind is to avoid exercising when experiencing symptoms like fever, exhaustion, or shortness of breath. Instead, folks should hold off on exercising until they have been rid of symptoms for 7 to 10 days. Exercise is never advised if you are ill or experiencing the symptoms of an infection that is active. If you exercise when you have a viral illness that is already active, it could make it worse and cause other issues.

3. Regularly monitor heart rate

You must first determine your resting heart rate. It's critical to understand where you are beginning from because this may have altered since your COVID-19 diagnosis. By checking your pulse, you can determine your heart rate in a variety of ways. Or, a heart rate monitor is a fantastic tool for physical activity if you would prefer to have a device providing you feedback.

4. Take your time

The likelihood of myocarditis following COVID-19 has gotten more attention. People should move slowly and pay attention to their bodies in consideration of this. When COVID-19 is present, it can cause severe inflammation throughout the body, some of which can harm the heart muscle and result in myocarditis. This may cause a ventricular arrhythmia, which could result in a heart attack, or it may cause an arrhythmia when the heart beats erratically. Patients should speak with their doctor before resuming vigorous activities or exercise if they have underlying past heart or pulmonary issues.

5. Try stabilising exercises

Yoga, Pilates, and core workouts are all excellent ways to revive your stabilising muscles, recover your range of motion, and get your body moving once more. Due to the drop in your activity levels, your core muscles have likely lost some of their capacity. As a result, be careful to breathe through your repetitions and focus all of your mental attention on making your movement powerful, solid, and conscious.

In conclusion, these small steps can be helpful in covid-19 recovery and provide your body with the right amount of break. Make sure to get follow-up tests and discuss with your doctor what is best for you.

Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for a qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. NDTV does not claim responsibility for this information.