How to Keep Strong While Recovering from COVID-19 at Home

Start here: Breathing and in-bed exercises while sick with COIVD-19

Each video starts with breathing exercises. These are important because “as we get sicker, we tend to take shallower breaths,” says Dr. Ankam.  “The breathing exercises show patients how to take deeper breaths to let their lungs aerate. They also improve patients’ ability to maintain strength in the accessory muscles surrounding their lungs, which helps improve overall lung function.”

The breathing exercises are followed by in-bed stretches and movement. “The aim of these exercises is to improve range of motion for all major joints,” says Dr. Ankam. “Everything is very gentle.” COVID-19 patients are at risk of heart inflammation, which is why the videos instruct viewers to take a pause to catch their breath, and make sure their hearts aren’t racing.

In fact, “if at any time during the exercises, a patient has  more shortness of breath than before, and difficulty talking, increased heart rate or palpitations, fatigue, exhaustion, dizziness or lightheadedness, they should stop the exercises and rest,” explains Stout. “All of these exercises are meant to be relatively easy. Just doing them regularly will be enough.”

If patients can complete 10 repetitions of each of these exercises twice a day without feeling more fatigued, then it’s safe to graduate to the next level: sitting exercises.

Next up – Sitting exercises 

When patients are fever free, and aren’t experiencing shortness of breath and recovering from COVID-19, they can graduate to the sitting exercises below.

The sitting exercises focus on arm and leg lifts. If patients are able to do 10 repetitions without becoming fatigued or short of breath, they can add a weight to the arm-lifting exercises, says Stout, but watch the pace. “Going at a slower pace, as demonstrated in the video, works better. Too fast, and you don’t really get the benefit.”

“There’s often a downward spiral in patients who experience shortness of breath,” says Dr. Ankam. Patients with difficulty breathing tend to be less active, and in turn lose muscle mass, which, in turn makes activity more difficult and leads to more shortness of breath. “Patients have to fight against that. These exercises are designed to help.”

Finally – Standing Exercises

Finally, viewers can try standing and chair exercises. At first, a patient might want to do these exercises with someone who can spot them, in case they get dizzy. “The last thing we want is for person to risk a fall,” says Dr. Ankam.

Once a patient feels comfortable with the standing and chair exercises and are ready to do more, Stout recommends walking and slowly getting back to daily activities. In fact, as patients begin to feel stronger, they can ease back into other normal activities of daily life. However, patients should consult their doctors before planning anything more strenuous.

Patients might not notice a big difference after doing these exercises but doing the right number of repetitions will help them maintain and improve their overall muscle strength and joint flexibility as they recover from COVID-19.