COVID-19 does not play well with exercise. Though exercise is usually great for your physical and mental health, exercising with this particular disease could be detrimental to your health. Everything most people know about exercise is thrown out the window when it comes to the coronavirus. Most people were taught it’s just fine to exercise through minor sickness symptoms. COVID-19 doesn’t play by the same rules.
Listen To Your Body
Exercise is important for your health. It helps keep your immunity system strong. It helps prevent underlying conditions that might make the coronavirus severe. So keep moving, but pay attention to your body. Athletes usually try to push through any physical issues. They think fatigue is just something they have to push through. This could be your body’s way of telling you to slow down.
Be mindful of the usual coronavirus symptoms. It could be a cold or allergies, but it could also mean COVID-19. If you have chest pain, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, lightheadedness, muscle pains, and/or swelling, it’s time to get tested. You should also check your heart monitor if you wear one. If you’re hitting your heart peak too early in your exercise or if you have a hard time bringing your heart rate down, this could be a symptom of the coronavirus.
Athletic Risk
An athlete’s risk of heart issues may be higher due to their intense activity. If they’re active during infection, even if they are asymptomatic, this could cause the virus to replicate faster than usual. This is because you increase your cardiac output during training. If infected, this could increase the virus replicating in the heart muscle. This increases your risk of heart failure. If you do not have the virus, regular exercise is important. Research shows it reduces the risk of acute respiratory distress syndrome. This is a disease that affects up to 17 percent of people with COVID-19.
The bottom line is to get tested before you hit the trail hard. Don’t play with the coronavirus. It doesn’t play by the same rules as a cold or even the flu. If you have any symptoms, immediately get tested before any more harm can be done to your body.