Back to training after covid-19?

[simza2]

Hello there!

I’m sorry if this question has been asked before or if the topic belong in another forum. Also sorry for any spelling or grammar errors. I dont write in english very often.

4 weeks ago i got sick with covid-19. A very mild infection. Was back to work after about 9 days again where i work as a nurse in a emergency hospital in Sweden focused on trauma care and surgery. And because i was feeling fine I did go and train again as usual. Bad move apparently. After the first session i was so out of breath that i had to calm myself down for a quite amount of time afterwards.The day after I was experiencing some chest tightness / pressure for about a week that later went away. Under that time I checked my blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen and no problems there. No difficulty breathing. I even had my chief physician / consultant on the ward order some blood samples on me (white blood cell count, CRP, troponin, elektrolytes - sorry, i dont know what the samples are called in english) that were all normal aswell. Haven’t done an ECG though.

So since then for about 3,5 weeks i haven’t done any physical activity whatsoever except for a few walks maybe. And today i took the stairs to the ward for the first time which is on the 6th floor just to see how the lugns would react. Again i was really out of breath and that chest tightness came back for a few hours. I have read some studies on how the SARS-CoV-2 virus maybe seems to have a higher risk for myocarditisin athletes which left me a bit concerned and confused how i should approach training from now on. So, what do?

Now i know the data is a bit limited regarding covid-19 and exercise (?) but my question is, what advice would you give me now regarding how and when to get back to training at this stage? Is it safe? Good idea or bad? What are your thoughts? I was planning to train again tomorrow too see how it feels but still have some doubts if its a good idea or if I should wait. Feel fine otherwise though.

Cheers!

[Austin_Baraki]

Unfortunately I am not comfortable giving you exercise advice in this context.

Negative/undetectable troponin levels would reduces the diagnostic likelihood that you had myocarditis, but would not rule it out entirely depending on the timing of the lab draw relative to your illness.

It is also somewhat reassuring that you feel fine at rest and have not developed other symptoms suggestive of dilated cardiomyopathy or heart failure (like leg swelling or shortness of breath when you lie down flat), but I would recommend consulting with your physician to sort out whether your symptoms merit further investigation. They may tell you to return to exercise but make it more gradual based on your tolerance, but if there is persistent concern, the next step might involve an echocardiogram.

[simza2]

@Austin_Baraki

Unfortunately I am not comfortable giving you exercise advice in this context.

Totally understand that.

@Austin_Baraki

Negative/undetectable troponin levels would reduces the diagnostic likelihood that you had myocarditis, but would not rule it out entirely depending on the timing of the lab draw relative to your illness.

It is also somewhat reassuring that you feel fine at rest and have not developed other symptoms suggestive of dilated cardiomyopathy or heart failure (like leg swelling or shortness of breath when you lie down flat), but I would recommend consulting with your physician to sort out whether your symptoms merit further investigation. They may tell you to return to exercise but make it more gradual based on your tolerance, but if there is persistent concern, the next step might involve an echocardiogram.

Thanks for the thorough answer, Austin! Appreciate it. I did train earlier today anyway just too feel it out and it actually felt good! Of course I was weak and my conditioning piss poor but no chest tightness / pain during or afterwards which reassured me a bit. If I feel worse later i’ll guess i will talk to my physician.

Anyways, thanks again for your time, take care!