[Andy Reed]

Hi there

Returning to sports after COVID infection is best done in a very slow and patient fashion, and there are really no short cuts. Fortunately most cases are mild, and I have been using the BJSM guidelines – here: https://www.fsem.ac.uk/infographic-grtp-covid-19/# to help guide RTP decisions and to dictate intensity. This is a good infographic that sums things up nicely.

But in general, I think that for most athletes, once they are back to some sort of normal daily activity, without lingering symptoms, it makes a lot of sense to have a few weeks in zone 1, then slowly increase the intensity, listening to how you feel, and taking additional rest days as you need. Remember too, that your Aerobic threshold will have changed, so what was once your aerobic threshold before illness, may well now be closer to your anaerobic threshold, so I do think when well enough, repeat testing with a drift test makes sense.

I always believe that it’s way smarter to go slow and be perhaps overly cautious in these situations, than to rush back, and end up digging yourself into a hole that takes much longer to climb back out of. It’s never wrong to go slower, but stepping up the intensity too early is often the wrong thing to do.