

The Coronavirus pandemic is something that has affected millions of people across the globe. Infection from the COVID-19 Virus has a wide range of symptoms, covering everything from a simple common cold to serious health disorders such as permanent lung damage and cardiac dysfunction. Only now, after months of testing and extensive research, are people being able to recover at a steady rate and able to return to their normal lives.
However, if you are someone who has successfully recovered from COVID-19, getting back to your normal workout routine may seem like an uphill task for now. So when should one start exercising after COVID recovery? And is it even OK to exercise after COVID recovery?
Before you decide to start exercising, it is important to get cleared by your medical health practitioner, understand what changes you will need to make in your lifestyle, begin consuming more nutrient-dense foods to aid your recovery process etc.
If you were aggressively into home exercises for weight loss, it is only natural to have an urge to get back to that routine post COVID recovery. If you are eager to start your workout routine understand that more than exercise your focus needs to be on lean muscle gain now. This is possible through a systematic approach to exercise and diet instead of plunging headfirst.
How To Get Started With Exercise after COVID

It is not uncommon these days to experience a steady decline in the area of physical activity due to quarantining, work from home, and a generally sedentary lifestyle. This in turn has caused our muscles to lose a lot of their strength, definition, and conditioning.
But when one suffers from a COVID infection, this effect is even more amplified. Therefore, when it comes to exercise after COVID, one needs to focus not just on bodybuilding tips, but also on the signs one receives from the body. It is a must to understand when the body is ready.
This is why you need to rest for a minimum of ten days from the time you get a negative on your COVID results before even thinking about getting back into exercise. Your body will have undergone severe blood count loss, muscle loss, and antibody loss during the time you were diagnosed. So even if you were earlier doing some home exercise for weight loss, do not think of resuming them now. Taking the time off helps your body rebuild itself into a working condition again.
During this period, you can also reintroduce your body to a lot of the ‘normal’ foods that you may not have consumed in a while. This is a really good way to restart your digestive system as well. It would be good to indulge in gentle stretches or some exercises for back at home since you would have spent a lot of time lying down and your back muscles would need some help.
Recommended Activity Pattern For An Effective Workout Routine

Coming back to exercise, it is important to start slow with your workouts from home. Engage in a very low effort, low-intensity workouts routine with a few minutes of activity.
If body pain and back issues plague you then you can start with some light exercises for back at home. Alternatively, start with simple physical exercises such as walking, jogging, and other basic home cardio exercises including a few home shoulder exercises or some workouts for the chest at home to restart your metabolism. As your body gets acclimated to the prospect of engaging in an activity again, you can slowly increase your exercise time.
Another thing to keep in mind is that while you have recovered from the disease on paper, your body might still be going through a lot of changes that affect your muscle condition and immune system function. Restrain from working out with heavy weights or straining yourself too much, even if you have a gym at home. Stick to simple cardio workouts and remember to know when you hit your limits.‘
PrecautionsTo Take With Exercise after COVID

If you experience the following symptoms at any point during your exercises and workouts from home, it is important that you abandon your workout routine at once and get yourself checked at the earliest with your health practitioner. Failing to do so could possibly result in a lot of unwanted side effects that have permanent damage to your vital organs.
- Shortness of breath, difficulty catching breath, or abnormal, rapid breathing
- Excessive level of fatigue
- Swelling in the extremities
- Syncope (passing out)
- Experiencing tunnel vision or loss of vision
- Headache
- High heart rate not proportional to exertion level or prolonged heart rate recovery
- Feeling lightheaded or dizzy
- Chest pain or heart palpitations
- Nauseous
Once you have visited your healthcare provider and gotten yourself checked, you may resume exercises at home post a period of 24 hours, provided that these symptoms are completely abated. Remember to follow up within the next 48 hours of experiencing these symptoms to receive additional testing and evaluation for your body.
Hydration

Another thing to keep in mind is to keep your body hydrated throughout the process. People recovering from Covid often experience severe levels of dehydration and loss of oxygen in the body. Consuming enough water will make sure that there is proper blood and oxygen flow between your cells. This also has other benefits such as boosting your body’s metabolic activity, repairing tissue damage, and preventing muscle atrophy.
Proper Nutritional Intake

Consuming the right kind of food is one of the most important things to do while following up with your covid recovery. Make sure that you get a balanced nutritional intake that is evenly distributed between healthy fats, lean proteins, and carbohydrates.
Since it can be a difficult process to calculate your nutritional intake and make sure you are getting the recommended daily allowance of all your nutrients, you can take simple steps to ensure the filling of your nutritional gap.
Consider supplementing your diet with health aids such as multivitamins and whey protein isolate powders. Combined with a stable diet and sustainable workout from the home regime, they will ensure that you get back to normal in no time.