Being fit and getting Covid
 

For those of you who caught Covid and were physically fit from exercising before you caught it, did it seem like being fit helped you recover faster? I know you aren't supposed to exercise while you are sick and recovering. We haven't caught it yet and I'm been exercising for years. Just wondering what impact that will have on me if I do catch it. Thanks for your input. I know everyone's situation/case is different.

I don't think it's advised but people are still going to do what they want.

I think they should check with their doctor also to determine if they are still fit enough for exercise.

I did not get Covid but If I were to get ill, I'd rest. Body needs all it's streght to fight off the Virus.

While exercise can be helpful in strengthening the immune system to fight off illness, it is not always advisable once you become ill. Sometimes it’s better to keep your sneakers in the closet and just rest. However, there are times when light- to moderate-intensity activity may actually help you feel better.

It can help, but I know someone who use to go to spin class 3-4 times a week plus some light weight training, who got Covid, and now she can barely walk across her house without getting winded. Long term syndrome. She is now off oxygen but can in no way do a spin class.
Its been about 7 months. She got it right before she could have gotten the vaccination.

there's a lot to be said about resilience - that of staying physically fit and preventing yourself from getting the disease.

according to this article, written in Apr 2021 before the full effects of vaccination could be assessed, "people who exercised regularly and then tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 were less likely to experience more severe COVID-19 outcomes":

https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/2021...0study%20shows.

I don’t think there’s any way to know for sure. I know a couple who both got COVID - they both were healthy and fit. The wife’s symptoms were like a mild flu and she recovered quickly. The husband passed away last week.

Thanks for that. It’s motivation to work out when I don’t feel like it.

There are also studies linking certain diet habits to better Covid outcomes. All of these things are common sense, and while not a guarantee, doing all we can to stay healthy is always a good idea. If the threat of Covid is what gets me off the couch on blah days, strengthening bones and warding off heart disease another day, it’s all good, right?

What about that doctor that was a marathon runner and nearly died from Covid.

This is purely anecdotal, but I had a former classmate who got COVID very early on when it was first making its way to the states, and she is in her early or mid-thirties, very fit, and runs. She actually kept running (half-heartedly, according to her, but she did do it) even while sick, and she swears it helped in her recovery. Mind you, this was not the Delta variant or anything.

Obviously if you're not used to doing a particular style of workout, don't take it up while you have COVID. And don't do anything that makes you feel worse. However, very light exercise that helps with lung function could actually be helpful. Consider the fact that they recommend you check your blood oxygen level when you have COVID, via a pulse oximeter, and that aerobic exercise increases your blood oxygen level.

Please note: I am not a medical doctor, nurse, or anything, I just read up on COVID quite a lot and am honestly petrified of catching it (despite being vaccinated), so I am always chasing info.

I mean, I suppose exercise helps in the sense that it may help hold off obesity and diabetes, both of which have more negative COVID outcomes.

Otherwise, it seems to be the luck of the draw, how a body reacts to the virus.

I had Covid and it was no big deal. I think being physically fit helped, but I also took zinc, quercetin, and d3/k2 combo to help build-up my immune system beforehand. I think diet and mental/spiritual health also play an important part in being/staying healthy. I was able to clean house and garden when I had it. I probably could have exercised, but I was afraid to make it worse. I decided it was best to take it easy for a few days. I might have done some light stretching workouts, but really don't remember for sure.

Matt Fitzgerald, a very well-known and VERY fit long-distance runner, suffered from debilitating LONG covid before Delta was a thing and before he could get vaccinated. He is just now recovering (over a year).

Vaccinated folks so far are 95%+ LESS likely to die or be hospitalized from covid, fit or not.

When I caught covid last Oct I would say my heart and lungs were in pretty good shape. I was on minimal meds for my BP and ran up and down my stairs all day long.

Getting covid was not what I expected. The fatigue is like nothing I've ever experienced, along with body aches from head to toe. No taste or smell. I ran a temp of 99 to 102 for 15 days. BP spiked and I had to double my meds and the doc added another just to keep it in acceptable numbers.

After Covid: I delt with fatigue for months, the loss of taste and smell lasted 6 weeks. My taste is still effected with foods not always tasting as they should. BP never resumed to "my normal" prior to covid. I am still on all covid prodical doses. The stairs I ran all day long became a mountain to climb.

Bottom line... do your best to stay health, but it's no gaurantee. My 55 year old friend who was "all things fitness" died in dec from covid.

I think everybody who gets Covid has a different experience. My friend who is healthy and works out has had long haulers since before Christmas. I had another friend who had to use a walker for several months after Covid. My former son-in-law had it earlier this year and said it was just like a cold. You never know how the virus will act.

I worked in a hospital laboratory until I recently retired and we had a very young woman in her 30s who was healthy and physically fit. She was a soccer player. She was in our ICU for about 3 months and died. It was the saddest thing I have ever seen. She had 3 small children. Doctors tried everything but this was at the beginning of the pandemic so really the only treatment that was available was convalescent plasma which was very hard to get early in the pandemic. When she finally got her plasma, she had a reaction to it which just made her condition worse.

Definitely keep working out and eat healthy to hopefully prevent a severe case if you get it but the virus seems to surprise us. Always listen to your doctors advice.

Sometimes too much exercise can be stressful for the immune system.
Long distance runners training for races, for example, increased their risk for getting sick.
https://www.active.com/fitness/artic...-make-you-sick

Fitness isn’t a panacea, but I’d rather go into an illness with a decent baseline level of fitness than not. And maybe I wouldn’t be pushing myself to my absolute limits in the middle of a viral surge.


TinaT, sending good thoughts for your continued recovery. That sounds so hard.

I'm so sorry to hear some of you have had it and had a rough time. And for those who lost friends, loved ones or acquaintances, you have my condolences. Indeed, this virus is bizarre--some people have such bad reactions, some have practically none.

As for general wellness, it's true that a healthy diet and exercise are no guarantees. I was recently tested for nutrient deficiencies. I eat a diet that is very nutritious by any measure and exercise regularly. I still had several deficiencies. It turns out I might have a genetic mutation (that is apparently very common) that makes it difficult for me to convert certain nutrients to their usable forms. I'm now on a targeted, medical grade supplementation plan that will hopefully address some of these issues.

The bottom line is we all just have to do our best and work with what we've got!

On the other end, my mother is not very fit at all. At the time prediabetic, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, very overweight (maybe about 80 pounds, all in the torso area), and does not work out. She is also close to 70. She caught Covid and breezed through. She was tired, but that's it. She had no other symptoms. In fact, the only reason she got checked for Covid is because a member at her church caught it, and passed it to half the congregation.

So I would say it's a crap shoot on how your body is going to react.

This. You cannot rely on descriptions of health at all to predict response to Covid---esp descriptions in the media or general public. Prolonged, intense exercise suppresses the immune system and this has been well documented in sports medicine for decades.

And how many news articles profess death by Covid in a person with no health issues, without actually knowing health status? Plenty of people avoid the doctor and never have to hear the diagnosis of obesity, hypertension, diabetes etc. but that doesn't mean they are healthy. There are also plenty of people who are smokers and eat junk food and have a highly inflammatory diet. Plenty of people who suppress their immune system through high stress/no sleep/nutritional deficiencies. How many of these seemingly healthy individuals had severe low vitamin D levels? All of these factors affect risk even if they aren't acknowledged or don't show on the surface.
ETA: I guess my main point is that many of the things that we focus on here (preventive exercise, good nutrition, educating ourselves about ways to improve our health etc) may be helping us in ways that don't get highlighted in folks who are projected as healthy but may have higher risk.

IMHO, we need to take care of ourselves the best we can and relax as much as possible.

<where's that Like button?>

I have been saying this very thing to myself during this whole pandemic! I always take with a grain of salt media declarations of "no health issues."

I was very fit and healthy and a life long exerciser (age 69), doing mostly Cathe and Les Mills in recent years. My husband and I got Covid in January, him mild, me severe and hospitalized.
I've recovered from the blood clots in my lungs and the Covid pneumonia but still have hypoxia, scar tissue and fibroids. I'm on oxygen and finding it very difficult to exercise without my oxygen saturation dropping to below 90. I don't know why this happened to me or what to expect in the future.

I thankfully haven't had covid, but I did have a pretty bad reaction to the vaccine. My entire right pinky and side of hand had severe nerve pain for about 8 weeks. I also suffered some bad motor skills and just felt completely odd for those 8 weeks. My doctor advised me to not get the second shot since he feared that I could develop Guillian Barre syndrome and end up hospitalized. Thankfully it resolved for the most part but I still feel it occasionally, and I had that first shot in April.

My son is 15, nearly 16, and he also had horrible nerve pain in his arm and debilitating headaches above his eyes that were also nerve related. He barely completed the last few weeks of school. His blood pressure wasn't stable either when I took him to the doctor a week after the shot. His doctor also advised him to not get the second shot for fear of myocarditis and worse nerve damage. He also still gets the nerve pain in his head occasionally now and he had the first shot in May.

But none of my other immediate family had reactions to either shot. My husband, who is 49, rather obese, and does zero exercise and doesn't have the greatest eating habits, was absolutely fine after both shots. But I work out with weights 5 times a week, eat well, generally take really good care of myself, my vitamin D level is in the good range, and I haven't had a cold since 2018. But yet I had a pretty severe vaccine reaction. You just never know!

I'm so sorry for all you have been through and are going through. Sending {{HUGS}} your way.

Sad to say but Covid resembles the cancer disease.

It has no age limit
It has no status limit
It has no boundaries
It has no fitness limits

It will attach any one. It does not discriminate

Ilyana. Got breast cancer. Healthy fit woman.

Don’t matter what you drink eat or don’t eat

It’s just the nature of the beast. Believe it.

Sorry for all that have struggled.

My husband and I both had covid early on and he was at high risk due to some health issues. We followed protocols recommended by orthomolecular Drs - quercetin, high dose vit c, d3, zinc, k2, garlic pills, oregano oil, olive leaf. DH had it twice as long as I did, but he was able to work full 8 hour days at home and we both recovered with no lasting issues. We both were eating super clean - no processed foods, vegan, whole food plant based. Neither of us was exercising around this time.

I had relatives who were super fit and active, but ate meat & sugar heavy diets and had covid longer & had to go on steroids to clear up lungs & cough.

DH's aunt & cousin were meat eating smokers who both were hospitalized and his aunt put on ventilator. Over a year later both still have long covid.

My mom never had covid, got the vaccine and had an adverse reaction, which I posted about in other covid thread.

My husband and I also took most of the same supplements to strengthen our immune system. We were/are in the high risk group. I also am vegan, but exercise regularly. I had a very mild case. He had absolutely no symptoms.

What many people don't realize is that those same supplements can aid in their recovering from Covid. Quercetin is used by many to help respiratory function.

Nm

The other thread was closed before I had the chance to reply---prayers and well wishes to your family and I truly hope your mom can heal. And thanks to all those who had kind words. Times are tough and you never know when just a little compassion can bring a light into someone's darkness.