COVID-19 Recovery from Lingering Effects
COVID-19 has been a challenge for all of us since March 2020. These past nine months have affected us all, whether that be due to quarantine, job loss, home schooling, getting sick with the virus, losing loved ones, or one of the other unfortunate effects. We at Balanced Fitness & Health are working hard to keep ourselves healthy, support our clients’ health, and maintain a clean environment in the clinic so we can continue to provide safe and effective therapy to our clients.
Over the last few months, we have heard from some of our clients that have battled COVID-19 that it is taking longer to recover than they expected. Outside of the initial 7-10 days of illness with a variety of symptoms, many patients are reporting long-term effects that they did not realize would happen. Some of the lingering COVID-19 symptoms include extreme fatigue, body aches, prolonged shortness of breath, headaches, dizziness, weakness and heart palpitations. These symptoms have persisted well beyond the 7-10 day recovery time.
Watch to learn the effects COVID-19 had on one of our clients.
In this article from the CDC (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/long-term-effects.html), public health doctors state that they are in the process of researching the long-term effects of contracting COVID-19. Aside from the aforementioned long-term symptoms of the virus, others are also reporting chronic joint and muscle pain, brain fog, intermittent fevers and depression. While we can’t control the unique effects of the virus, we can help our clients control their health before and after contracting COVID-19.
Helping a COVID-19 Patient Recover
One of our regular clients, Brevity, contracted COVID-19, and she has had lingering effects from the virus that affected her day-to-day life. Brevity says of the virus, “It was miserable. I was in bed for 6 days and I experienced lingering effects long after that.”
Even after she felt recovered from the COVID-19 virus, she continued to feel deep body and muscle aches and tremors, which were scary for her to experience.
"I couldn’t have gotten through the fatigue if I wouldn’t have had my physical therapy to come back to,” Brevity says.
Angie notes that Pilates rehabilitation focuses on mindful movement and proper breathing techniques to build strength, improve endurance and enhance mobility. All of these are crucial to recovering from COVID-19. These foundations of Pilates work well in getting lung function back to normal levels. Improved lung function will help decrease the chronic fatigue that many people are experiencing.
Watch to learn simple tips from Angie to improve fatigue and lung function.
Breathing Exercise #1
Breathing Exercise #2
Personalized Therapies
We feel fortunate to have worked with clients on many difficult physical challenges, and now, we are doing so to help those affected by the pandemic. Our whole-person, individualized approach has been very effective for hundreds of Cedar Rapids area individuals. And our entire therapy team is committed to continuing to serve people throughout the pandemic by using best practices for our safety and the safety of our clients.
If you are recovering from COVID-19 or another difficult illness, injury or surgery, we are here for you. We will assess your symptoms and help you begin a gentle exercise program to rebuild your endurance and get you back to feeling like yourself again.
Along with physical and occupational therapy, Balanced Fitness & Health also offers nutrition consultation to enhance your recovery. Nutrition offers another path to prevention of and recovery from COVID-19. We believe an anti-inflammatory diet will help build your immunity, lessen the severity of an illness and/or improve recovery. Our nutrition consultants can help you with this with a one-on-one consultation and plan.
For some simple steps to take on your own to boost your immune function, see this blog post https://www.balancedfitnessandhealth.com/boosting-immune-function .
At Balanced Fitness & Health, we are passionate about helping you live your life to the fullest. Let’s work together to make sure you are strong, healthy and pain-free now and beyond the pandemic.