As I tried numerous times to restart training after my Covid illness and failed I do go about it now in a more mindful way and, as part of my profession I do plan trainings ,I want to share my approach. Seems to work so maybe others can share their experience and how they go about getting back.
The problems with low level covid ilness is sometimes a prolonged state of fatigue and being out of breath all the time.In general the lungs seem to adapt much slower.
My first approach was just to go about it like after a flu. Did not work out at all for months. It was just too much training load that muscles, tendons etc could manage but not the cardiopulmonal part of my body.
1) The BOLT test has shown to be quite precise in sensitivity regarding post Covid syndrome. Take the test there are quite some descriptions on the internet.
https://oxygenadvantage.com/measure-bolt/
Covid patients often score <10seconds
Mine was 6seconds when I started. Thats your Retest to look how you improve
Focus on breathing and activate deep belly breathing as soon as you do sports and out of sports.
I use crocodile breathing and 90/90 breathing as a start or cooldown.
2) all sports activities are done with a so called "new breathing technique". Sorry its translated from scientificc articles in german. Its well researched "Leistungssport Strelzov 2004"
I use that also in boxing. rope jumping, shadow boxing...etc. If I am not able to breathe like that I stop sports as its too much.
I did a lot of sports with this before but now its my main focus and by that I am now able to slowly reenter sports.
onto the so called new breathing:
If we do not focus on breathing we just kind of change our frequency regarding the intensity of the workout. Reflexive breathing. In general one would think that is the most "natural" as we do it instinctively but we do it because once we moved with all 4 extremities. Animals like apes or tigers need to breath in sync with their speed because of the activation of upper trunk muscles in ground contact. We humans dont.
physiology behind it: We have close to optimal O2 saturation with a breath of ca. 1,6seconds. (0,6-0,8sec intake air) The haemoglobin is able to take up maximum amount of O2. If we breath faster we get the same amount of air into our lungs but less and less oxygen is taken up. Also more CO2 gets removed from lungs. So we want to stay close to that optimal oxygen intake to minimize anaerobic energy generation. Sports will get less demanding at the same intensity and your lungs are working much more efficient and are kind of better trained to get back into fuction. There are more beneficial factors but thats too much detail.
differences to "normal" breathing"
1) from the start breath consciously as deep as possible and keep a steady rythm.
2) breathing in is slow and deep and as the breathing out accompanied by activation of belly muscles.
3) When intensity gets higher (cadence in running) I do KEEP my deep breathing rythm. From studies with running athletes their breathing frequency is lowered at least by a third.
I do keep this in all sports activities. If I cant execute it I know I should stop. Helps a lot and as a nice side profit core muscle activation is much higher and general stress level reduced.
In the study they did the athletes did not only feel better even when they performed at their maximum capacity but they also performed better,. In running they gained close to 5seconds / km on average with a 1000m run.
Maybe this helps other affected by post covid syndrome and they can share their story.
For myself its night and day.
