Corona disease survived – and now back to the usual sports routine? This is apparently not that easy even for those who have recovered and who have no obvious long-Covid symptoms. That’s what a study with runners found.
After a break from running, it’s generally better not to start again too eagerly. But that seems to be particularly true if the break had to be taken due to Corona. A study from New York found that Covid can increase the susceptibility to injury in runners.
Study with 1947 runners
For the study, the scientists conducted a survey with 1,947 runners between July and December 2020. On average, they were 45 years old, and 56.5 percent were female. All participants had taken part in at least one running competition in 2019. As part of the study, the subjects indicated whether they had a Covid infection – based on a positive test or a diagnosis from the doctor. They also indicated if they had an injury since March 2020 that prevented them from walking for at least a week.1
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Higher risk of injury from Covid?
Of the 1,947 runners, 6.3 percent said they had contracted Covid between March and September 2020. These people were also asked about the severity and duration of their illness. 30.9 percent of them had an injury following their illness that forced them to take another break from running. In contrast, the figure for those surveyed who had not had Covid was 21.3 percent. Thus, those who had recovered from Covid apparently had a higher susceptibility to injury. Their risk was 1.66 times greater than those with no prior Covid infection.
Since breaks in running are quite common even for healthy runners – for example after an intensive phase or a competition – the researchers attribute the differences in susceptibility to injuries to Covid. «If you’re otherwise healthy, resting for a few weeks doesn’t result in much deconditioning for most runners. However, illnesses can lead to greater impairments in strength and fitness. Covid-19 can have more systemic effects than a typical cold, which could explain our results in this study,» study leader Brett Toresdahl suspects when asked by «Runner’s World».
He and his team had expected an effect from Covid on the runners’ susceptibility to injury, but I was surprised at how big the difference between Covid and no Covid disease was.
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classification of the study
As the scientists themselves point out, the examined data come from a survey. This means that the subjects gave all information about a possible Covid disease and sports injury from their memories. The correctness could therefore not be guaranteed 100 percent. In addition, the researchers did not investigate exactly when an injury occurred after infection. Was there a few weeks between recovery and injury? Or did more time pass? The time factor was not captured, making it difficult to establish a causal relationship between Covid and injury susceptibility.
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Conclusion
Despite the limitations, the study points out that after a Covid illness, it is definitely advisable to cautiously return to sport. Even if, like the runners studied, you were at a good level of fitness before you got infected. The leaders of the study recommend waiting a little longer after recovery before becoming physically active again, and also to start off lightly – e.g. B. walking instead of running.