A new study from Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet, published in JAMA Network Open, suggests that people with post-COVID do not need to completely avoid exercise, challenging previous recommendations that discouraged physical activity due to potential harm. Post-COVID patients, who often suffer from symptoms like fatigue, shortness of breath, muscle weakness, and an elevated resting heart rate, are advised by the World Health Organization (WHO) and other major health organizations to avoid intense exercise. However, researcher Andrea Tryfonos and her team recruited 31 post-COVID patients with no other health issues, along with a control group of 31 age- and sex-matched individuals, to explore the effects of different exercise intensities on post-COVID symptoms.
Participants completed three types of workouts: high-intensity interval training, moderate continuous cycling, and strength training. They were monitored before, immediately after, and 48 hours after each session through medical tests including blood work, heart ultrasound, lung function tests, and muscle biopsies. Results showed that post-COVID participants fared just as well as the control group without worsening symptoms or showing adverse effects during the 48-hour observation period. Although post-COVID participants generally had lower fitness and muscle strength levels—likely from prolonged symptoms and inactivity—researchers found that 62% of them also exhibited myopathy, a muscle tissue change impairing capacity.
These findings suggest that exercise could be beneficial for post-COVID patients if approached cautiously. Tryfonos believes the guidelines should be updated to encourage supervised, gradual exercise rather than total avoidance, allowing post-COVID patients to rebuild physical strength over time. She emphasizes, however, that not all post-COVID individuals may tolerate exercise in the same way. Funded by several Swedish foundations, this study highlights the potential for revised exercise recommendations to help post-COVID patients regain fitness safely and effectively.
