How active were you with COVID?

[redandyellowbits]

Hi, I generally do 12,500 steps a day and a 30 min workout each morning.
I've just tested positive for covid, and have walked 2,500 steps today and no workout as I couldn't manage it. How did you approach exercise with COVID? Do a bit a day or just rest till it was over?
I'm on day 1 and don't feel great but am wondering if I am just feeling lethargic through lack of exercise rather than being ill.

I had Covid 6 weeks ago ... just starting to get back into exercise now. It's my motivation - I still don't have my full energy back 100%

I had a week of doing practically nothing. Then I started going for walks again. Was back to normal running training by a fortnight; ran 20 miles as usual two weeks after my first positive test.

Most active people I know did similar.

Is there an actual study that says exercising is likely to give you long covid? I would have thought the cause and effect was the other way round and if you felt too ill to exercise as normal, you were more likely to have ongoing symptoms, but that's just my thoughts, not a medical opinion!

I carried on as normal, first had covid in January after 3x vaccinations. Felt rubbish for about 48 hours then fine and just did home workouts. Just had it again, had mild symptoms for 24 hours, then went back to home exercise.

I treated Covid the way I would any illness - I took time out to allow my body to heal, and only did what my body could manage. I was working (WFH) throughout, and had a mild case, and TBH, working was enough without trying to fit a workout in as well.

Looking back at my workout stats, I managed a few short walks 45-50 mins pretty quickly, did some yoga, and first higher intensity workout was about a week after testing positive when I did an online spin class. Like I say, I had a very mild case, was nothing worse than a head cold for me, and I bounced back quickly.

I was bed ridden whilst looking after a baby and a toddler that also had covid... So not very active...

I had bad symptoms for about 5 days and did basically 0 steps as I just stayed in bed.

I did read that overdoing it could lead to long covid but can’t remember where. It was happening to athletes.

So I rested and didn’t run at all for 3 weeks. Read up a bit and advice at the time was wait until 10 days clear of no symptoms. Then build back up. I did walking and gentle exercise when I felt better but very cautious with running.

There don't seem to be any proper research studies that suggest exercising too soon leads to long Covid; but of course we're still at the point where very little is known about long Covid so this isn't much of a surprise. If there are such studies out there I'd be interested in reading them.

When I went back to exercise after Covid I was v careful and tracked my heart rate closely, just to be sure I wasn't overdoing it. For me, that made more sense than being completely sedentary, and helped me get back to "normal" much more quickly.

I’m sure everything I read was anecdotal regarding athletes and runners but it was enough for me to ease back very gently - watch heart rate and not rush back earlier than I felt ready.

But I’m a bugger for running when I don’t feel quite 100% and I made myself very ill once doing this. Long covid sounds so awful I was happy to wait a week or so more than I normally would have. Especially as Covid has been shown to affect heart rate (one study on runners showed heart rates remained higher than their normal rate when running for 90 days). It’s a funny virus and not one is mess about with.

Going back to activity too quickly is a risk factor for long Covid - a very fit active friend of mine is going through this now. Rest more than you think you need to, and for longer. Don’t take risks with this!

I don't think there is solid evidence, but anecdata around this made me take it really easy with my two recent covid bouts (both mild) - I did very little for a few days till I felt my energy properly return, then started with short walks, and built up gradually to my normal fairly tough regime, bounced back fine. It is always a good idea to rest when you have a virus I think (other than the most minor of colds) - and there is still much we don't know about this one. If you are near the start and feeling lethargic, I would rest plenty, forget exercise for a few days.

I've learned over the years that any cold can make you feel ropey for a couple of weeks after and it's best to be gentle, have low expectations and work to comfort level through that phase.

I didn't feel ill enough to stop exercising with Covid but I did dial it back and used a peak flow monitor and blood oximeter to check I was on reasonable form and unlikely to trigger burnout.

Having followed up soon after with an underlying over use injury from too many races condensed into the autumn, it was the month off running that made me feel crap, not the Covid a month earlier. I reached the point of starting 3min runs around the block because I still wasn't ready for C25k for a while but i could feel the CV fitness fading rapidly and hated the feeling.

The problem is that if illness has knocked you off exercise for long enough to lose fitness, you can't untangle what is actual post-viral fatigue and what is loss of fitness from time off anyway. Sometimes you have to dial back further than you think to recover and build up. I say that as someone who's started their excercise post (SPD) pregnancy and surgical births with walking 100m to the end of the road and back.

I did an hour each day on my rowing machine to keep my fitness going whilst isolating, no Ill effects whatsoever but I was asymptomatic

Countless times I've found that some aerobic exercise made me feel much better when I had a cold. Seemed to lift me overall.

I have covid now for the second time - day 9. I have done the school run twice this week as no option other than to do it - walk there (30mins) normally run back (15 mins) and I can't do the run back without walking. I normally run each day and then do 10k steps on top. As hard as it is for me I'm resting this week and will see how I feel next week.

It's frustrating as when I had it the first time in December it was mild and I was able to run on day 2 (I was in a different country and rural before anyone starts complaining)

Just be guided by how you feel. When I had covid I would swing between lethargy and being in bed to being out doing the gardening in the same day. I’m easily bored and not one for sitting in front of the tv or in bed unless I need to.

I couldn't get out of bed from day 2 - day 6. Wiped me out completely.

I switched from running to yoga as it was something I could do in the house while self isolating and fairly gentle. But I generally felt fine after the first day or two