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Aysia Hill

Dr.Guenzel

ENC 1102-0M37

04/05/2021

Physical Recovery of Coronavirus on Different Activity Levels

When the pandemic hit, everyone worldwide was drastically impacted and still are to this

day. One of the biggest impacts of this pandemic on many of us was the startling new lifestyles

that had to be adapted to in order to prevent the spread of this virus. Despite the measures put in

place to prevent the spread many were infected and some of them are still recovering to this day.

In this paper, the recovery of those infected will be researched and analyzed keeping in mind

their activity levels. As many of us were forced into a different lifestyle due to lockdowns we

became less active, even some professional athletes began living moderate to sedentary

lifestyles. Thus, it is important to research and understand how these new or old lifestyles impact

our recovery from the respiratory virus Covid-19. According to the World Health Organization,

the coronavirus is a respiratory disease that can easily be spread through saliva droplets or any

exchange of bodily liquid(2020).This topic peaked my interest as I hope to be in the profession

of physical therapy. Physical therapists are important during this time in order to aid in the

respiratory recovery of those infected. In this paper there are those who support the idea that

those who live/lived an active lifestyle will recover quicker and easier than those who live a

sedentary or moderately active lifestyle. There are also those who support that claim but either

for those who live a sedentary or a moderately active lifestyle. Those who live a moderately

active lifestyle will have a faster recovery than those who are not as active or too active, as their
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body will be more likely to recover without too many threats and the body is already considered

to be “healthy”.

Although recovery varies depending on many different variables,isolating the activity

levels of those who have been infected will help with understanding how many can make a

change in order to recover better. In the paper, those studied are between young adults and adults

and are considered to be in a healthy state. However, those who live a sedentary lifestyle are still

likely to have underlying health problems that will impact their recovery. As there are not many

studies based on the activity level specifically, I will be using others’ experiences and comparing

those with the research found on their activity levels.

Sedentary lifestyles are those of which little to no exercise is done. Those who work from

home or in offices often live a sedentary lifestyle as they are sitting for long hours whilst

working then resting when they return home. During lockdown many began to transition to this

lifestyle and sticking to it for the rest of the year, as many gyms and parks were closed thus little

exercise could be accomplished. The World Health Organization determined that “physical

inactivity...are increasingly becoming part of today’s lifestyle leading to the rapid rise of diseases

such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, or obesity”(2002). The likelihood of these health

conditions worry researchers as those with underlying health conditions are likely to struggle

with their recovery of Covid-19. Sadly, there is less hope of reaching full recovery for those who

live this lifestyle and have these conditions were six times as likely to be hospitalized after

diagnosis and 12 times as likely to die from Covid-19 in comparison to a healthy individual

(Washington post). In terms of recovery, one would have to be able to go back to their previous
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state before the infection. By comparing the previous state of those who are sedentary to those

who are moderately active or active, they have a lower bar set for full recovery. Although this

low bar has been achievable by some, those who have poor health conditions due to their lack of

activity will find it more difficult to just walk up the stairs. Chris Gough, not a sedentary but a

moderately active person, mentioned his difficulty walking up the stairs and how he could not

catch his breath most of the time(2020). Now take this example and apply it to one who already

struggles to use the stairs without the virus crippling their lungs. Most sedentary people have this

difficulty already, but with Covid-19 damaging their respiratory system this daily activity could

become borderline dangerous.

In this paper, a moderately active lifestyle includes those who are lightly active and

moderately active as there is not a lot of difference between them and most people live at the

border of these two lifestyles. According to the World Health Organization, a healthy person

lives a moderately active lifestyle; this is defined as intentional moderate exercise for 150-300

minutes throughout the week(2020). While researching this lifestyle, those who were infected

seemed to have recovered with less worry than the other lifestyles. However, the recovery

process still caused some to struggle to get where they were previously. Since the bar of recovery

is higher than those who are sedentary, Covid-19 caused some to struggle to get back to where

they started before their infection, but still were able to recover faster than sedentary. Maggie

Astor, for example, lived a moderately active lifestyle before her infection, as she is said to

partake in the outdoors often. She stated that she experienced coughing fits that made her

“almost thr[o]w up several times”, nausea, and fevers(2020). She did recover quite well, as she

reported no more symptoms after 14 or so days. This was the same for Chris Gough, as
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mentioned above. These two examples represent some of the 80% who experience a seemingly

“mild case” of Covid-19 (Graham,2020). Yet due to living the preferred lifestyle of daily

exercise, these people’s bodies were able to recover better and even get back into their regular

exercise, from home of course. One big part was that their body was neither underused or

overexerted, thus leading to a seemingly perfect internal balance. Dr. James Turner and Dr. John

Campbell, physiologists from the University of Bath, explain how important regular exercise is

especially during these times,preferably socially distanced, as regular exercise leads to a better

and more active immune system (2020).

On the opposite side of sedentary, there is the active lifestyle. The active lifestyle

includes those who are well over the recommended amount of time provided by the World

Health Organization. Although those who live an active lifestyle for a living, such as professional

athletes, are considered to be very healthy their recovery rate from Covid-19 has not been as

easy as anticipated. With all the activity done, athletes do have a better immune system and a

healthier body based on the research done by Dr.James Turner and Dr. John Campbell.

Besides their very healthy immune systems and healthy muscles, there has been a rise in a

cardiovascular condition in athletes who have been infected by Covid-19. According to Harvard

Health, this condition is Myocarditis “an inflammation of the heart muscle that decreases the

ability of the heart to pump blood normally”(2018). In a Twitter post, Professor David Liu from

Harvard University states that around 60% of athletes who recovered from Covid-19 are

developing this condition(2020). Therefore these athletes either cannot fully recover or their

recovery process is slow and very tedious. Amir Hossien Mehrsafar, sports psychologist,

discusses that many of these athletes then begin to mentally struggle with this idea that their

recovery may not be as ideal as they would have hoped (2020). Along with this mental pressure

of their career being over, Covid-19 was discovered to “suppress the neuroendocrine-immune
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system which is closely involved in stress and stress resilience as well as coping strategies”

(Mehrsafar, 2020). The increasing mental health toll on professional athletes could lead to a

weakened immune system, as stress can cause physical ailments to the body. Although at first,

the idea of athletes having one of the worst recovery responses to Covid-19 would have

shocked many medical professionals, but with the overexertion of energy given in an active

lifestyle the body will have its failures. With sports coming back into full force, one has to think

about the lives of the athletes being put at risk if they come into contact with Covid-19. As a full

recovery, even without Myocarditis, is extremely difficult as the bar set for their recovery is much

higher in comparison to the other activity lifestyles. This is due to their likelihood of having a

better initial endurance, thus a higher level to achieve when their respiratory system is

compromised.

Between all three of these lifestyles, the lifestyle of moderately active seems to have the better

recovery rate. This is due to the lack of negatives that are impacted their recovery compared to

those of sedentary and active lifestyles. The sedentary lifestyle seems to have the most negatives

holding them back from a full recovery. Although their recovery has a low bar set to reach,

seeing a full recovery in a majority of patients living a sedentary lifestyle is not likely. Those

who live a sedentary lifestyle have a higher likelihood of poor recovery and seem to have the

higher percent of mortality when it comes to Covid-19. This high mortality rate is due to the

likelihood of them having underlying conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular issues, etc. By

living a sedentary lifestyle, one’s body cannot develop as strong of an immune or respiratory

system as those living an active lifestyle. Active lifestyles, however, are also not as likely to fully

recover from Covid-19, despite their stronger immune system and well built respiratory system.

Their heart seems to take most of the punch from Covid-19 as many who live an active lifestyle

are likely to develop Myocarditis thus limiting their recovery. This lifestyle does seem to recover
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better than sedentary as sedentary has such a high mortality rate. Those living a moderately

active life seem to have a better recovery rate out of the bunch, but can still have struggles due to

Covid-19’s impact on the respiratory system. As mentioned earlier, those living this lifestyle did

recover within the given 14 days of the illness, but still had some trouble getting back into the

shape they were previously in.

The coronavirus is very dangerous and should be taken seriously. Although many are

living a moderately active lifestyle, it has become increasingly difficult to stay active and keep

your body in good health. The recovery rates are measurable, yet this does not mean there are no

anomalies present in this research. There are athletes who have fully recovered, sedentary people

as well, and even moderately active people that die or never fully recover.
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Works Cited

Astor, Maggie. “He Would Have Coughing Fits That Lasted until He Ran out of Air, Catch His
Breath, Then Have Another One 30 Seconds Later. He Couldn't Speak without Coughing.
He Took Every OTC Cough Medicine and Was Still Coughing. He Got Prescription
Cough Medicine and Was Still Coughing. 6/x.” Twitter, Twitter, 6 Apr. 2020,
twitter.com/MaggieAstor/status/1247173957792477185.

Campbell, John, and James Turner. “Regular Exercise Benefits Immunity -- Even in
Isolation.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 31 Mar. 2020,
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200331162314.htm.

“Coronavirus.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization,

www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus#tab=tab_1.

Gough, Chris. “Now That I Am Recovering from Covid-19, I Want to Share My

Symptoms, and My Experience, in Case It Is of Help to Anyone Else. I've Felt Pretty
Rotten the Last Few Days, but Am Finally Improving.I Am Only Talking about My Own
Experiences - as a Patient, Not a Doctor. (1/n).” Twitter, Twitter, 16 Mar. 2020,
twitter.com/goughcj/status/1239587299136098305?lang=en.

Graham, Judith. “What Recovery From COVID-19 Looks Like.” Scientific American,
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from-covid-19-looks-like/.

Liu, David R. “A 27-Year Old Professional Athlete in His Prime Developed Myocarditis
(Heart Muscle Inflammation) from #COVID19 That Ended His Season before It Began.
Myocarditis Is a Common Outcome in Recovered COVID-19 Patients-60% in This
Study.” Twitter, Twitter, 2 Aug. 2020,
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Mehrsafar, Amir Hossien, et al. “Addressing Potential Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on

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“Physical Activity.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization,

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“Physical Inactivity a Leading Cause of Disease and Disability, Warns WHO.” World
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%2C%20depression%20and%20anxiety.

Popkin, Barry M., et al. “Individuals with Obesity and COVID‐19: A Global Perspective
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Publishing, Harvard Health. “Myocarditis.” Harvard Health,

www.health.harvard.edu/a_to_z/myocarditis-a-to-z.

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Athletes Recovering From COVID-19 Infection.” JAMA Cardiology, JAMA Network, 1
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Sun, Lena H. “Patients with Underlying Conditions Were 12 Times as Likely to Die of
Covid-19 as Otherwise Healthy People, CDC Finds.” The Washington Post, WP
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people-cdc-finds/.

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Guidelines for Patients with COVID-19 Based on Recommendations of World
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