Returning to Exercise after Covid-19

Fortunately there are no longer restrictions on the game, however for those of us who have suffered from covid over the holidays (myself included) coming back after some time off can be difficult, especially if you have been particularly poorly.  I thought I would share some advice and tips on returning to training and provide you with a programme to follow too. Please be mindful that I am not a doctor and whilst this programme helped me, you need make sure that you adapt and scale movements to suit your own recovery. 

Before we get on with the programme though, let’s start with some helpful tips and advice for returning to exercise. 

1. As always, when you return to sport after a period of injury or illness, it is really important that you listen to your body. Everyone symptoms are different so there is never a ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to a returning to sport programme. You need to make sure that you give yourself adequate rest between work periods, go slowly and try not to get too excited and over-do it the first time. 
2. Your body needs fuel to recover. Just because you’re not exercising as much, doesn’t mean you should be restricting your calories too. You need to make sure that your body is filled with enough food, nutrients and water to recover. If you are not doing this, you definitely shouldn’t be thinking about adding exercise into the mix.
3. Try something new. It’s likely that you won’t be able to return to your usual training sprints, heavy lifting and HIIT sessions because your body has taken quite a bit of a step back whilst it has been recovering. So instead of feeling unfit and like you’ve lost your progress in your original programme, try a new style of exercise where you have no expectations, nothing to compare to and can just have fun. Step workouts on Youtube are a really popular choice if you are looking to integrate some cardio into your day from home. 
4. If you’re anything like me, tracking progress is what keeps you motivated. Using interval style training where you work for a given period of time and rest for a given period too is a really easy way to track and progress your workouts whilst also ‘taking it easy’. You can start with 20 seconds work and 40 seconds rest and then as you feel better gently increase the work:rest ratio. 
5. Remember fitness and progress isn’t linear. There will be set backs and days when you don’t feel your best and that’s ok. On those days, it’s important to not be hard on yourself. Give yourself a rest day or just roll out your mat and do some gentle stretching to avoid getting fidgety about not getting in a workout. 

I’ve spoken a lot here about ‘taking it easy’ and listening to your body and not training to hard to start with. So it might also be helpful to have a think about your heart rate while you exercise and use this to track the exertion you are putting on your body. If you are lucky enough to have a heart rate monitor or a fitness watch, you can easily gauge and track your heart rate and exertion levels throughout your session. When you are returning to play after covid it is recommended that you keep your heart rate under 130 BPM for the first week of exercise. You can then look to increase this to below 150 BPM for the second week if your body feels good to do so and then 180 BPM beyond that. 

If you do not have a heart rate monitor don’t panic. Instead you can use a Rate of Perceived Exertion scale (RPE). This is a tool trainers use to gauge how difficult an exercise is for an athlete. 1 on the scale is easy and 10 is really difficult. You should keep in mind how the exercise feels physically, how breathless you are, how tired you become during the exercise, and how long you feel you would be able to repeat the exercise with rest. During the first week of your return to exercise your should be aiming to work at  a RPE of 3/4, second level 5 and then week 3 and beyond at a 7 or more. 

As always these scales are not linear and are just a suggestion. If you feel you need to spend longer at a certain level then do so. However if your symptoms persist, your HR is very high during your rest periods, you experience shortness of breath very quickly or you have extreme fatigue it might be an idea to contact your doctor for a check up. 

Hopefully you are now feeling ready to take on a new programme to get you back into the game. Below I have included three weeks of training for you to try. Remember to take it slow and adapt exercises if you need to. 

Good Luck