Returning to exercise post-COVID

Pilates instructor and owner of Core Pilates studio Tash Lamb got COVID at the end of February this year, three months on and the fitness lover is still struggling to rebuild her fitness.

Pilates instructor and owner of Core Pilates studio, Tash Lamb.

Ms Lamb has always lived an active lifestyle and over her seven-day isolation she continued to train at home with very minimal physical effort and intensity, but returning to her regular fitness regime post-COVID has proved to be near impossible.

“I just don’t have the strength or energy I had prior to COVID, It's very frustrating, I want to exercise but my body isn’t allowing me to at the level I usually would,” she says.

“I find I feel okay until I start exerting energy, then I realise how exhausted my body feels.”

Tash Lamb instructing at her studio, Core Pilates in Singleton.

Personal trainer and World Champion Athlete, Mel Mcnamara.

It took Ms Lamb over four weeks to return to regular training with her Personal Trainer, Mel McNamara, who says, “I’ve seen a lot of my clients suffer from severe fatigue when returning to training after COVID.”

McNamara has not yet contracted the virus herself but the personal trainer and World Champion Ironman Triathlete fears what long-term impacts COVID could have on her own health and fitness.

She says, “I’ve seen so many of my own clients and other athletes in my field struggle to rebuild their strength after COVID, fatigue and shortness of breath seem to be the most common.”

Strength trainer and cross-fit enthusiast, Lachlan McWilliams.

Although these symptoms seem to be common across the fitness community, strength trainer and cross-fit enthusiast Lachlan McWilliams has contracted the virus twice and says that although the virus knocked him about while infections, he hasn’t seen the same long-term COVID symptoms that others report.

“I’m still training five days a week at my local gym and haven't felt the slightest change in my strength or performance,” he says.

“I'm still hitting goals, smashing PBs (personal bests) and increasing my strength despite being hit with the virus twice in the last three months.”

One study conducted in early January this year suggests that certain people are at higher risk of developing long COVID – including those who are unvaccinated, diabetic, females over 40, contracted certain antibodies or had a high viral load while being infected.

Although, senior respiratory physiotherapist and researcher in the study Meredith King says, the evidence and trends surrounding the symptoms of long-term COVID are, “really quite random at this point.”

Experts say the reasons behind who or what causes ‘long COVID’ are not well understood.

“We’re seeing people in their 20s, 30s, 40s – it's not just individuals who had pre-existing medical conditions, so that’s been really surprising," Ms King says.

Although one finding from the study that stood out was that 89 per cent of long-term COVID sufferers see a worsening of symptoms after exercise.

Chief medical officer of Health Direct Australia, Dr Nirvana Luckraj.

The chief medical officer of Health Direct Australia Dr Nirvana Luckraj says that long-term effects on lung function are one of the leading factors for fatigue and shortness of breath when exercising after COVID.

“It may take time to increase lung capacity after the infection," she says.

Dr Luckraj suggests that the protein receptor the virus uses to enter the body is potentially what causes the long-term COVID phenomenon.

The ACE2 receptor is found in the blood vessels, heart and lungs and is the closest answer as to why people are suffering from symptoms months after recovering from the virus.

“Exercise is important for recovery… but it should be done gradually and safely,” Luckraj says.

There has also been a rapid increase in the use of respiratory inhalers and asthma prevention devices according to the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration.

Local pharmacist Carolyn Robinson says, “We’re seeing that one of the most annoying aspects of COVID is a post-viral cough and I'm seeing people needing to be treated with extremely high doses of preventative puffers, at doses twice of what they would normally be being used to control the symptoms of asthma.

Local pharmacist, Carolyn Robinson.

“These are people who haven't even needed it before, the prescribing patterns are usually a week to two weeks of double the dose normally used, and not just double the dose but increasing the frequency and dependency on preventative devices.”

“It's not alarming, but it's interesting,” she says.

Medical experts are still trying to understand why COVID-19 symptoms linger months after contracting the virus.

Extreme fatigue, lack of motivation and shortness of breath seem to be the most recognised symptoms of long-term COVID, but who and why are still unknown.