Optimize Your Post-Illness Recovery

If you are planning to train for the upcoming season, whether racing or just getting the most out of your season, pleases take time to check out these two infographics from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).

Returning To Physical Activity After Covid-10

High Intensity Interval Training

By now, likely at least 50% of you will have already had a brush with COVID, with the rest of us likely expecting it at some point in the future. Being healthy and active and likely boostered to some extent, the risk of serious illness is much lower with our population. The constant thread we keep hearing however is concern about long COVID. And rightly so. We have heard from a number of those who have experienced either long COVID or a protracted case. The frustration, exhaustion and worry is well worth trying to avoid. So here are some guidelines pulled together with the latest evidence. A couple of weeks of more moderate activity will not hurt you, and may even help you to be ready for the dryland training to come. Hey, if Andre deGrasse can wait over a month post COVID and still pull off a gold medal performance, that should provide us a fine example.

Once you are past the initial recovery and have your aerobic base restored, it will be time to prepare for training again, which leads us to the second infographic. As in, how to approach ‘High Intensity Interval Training” or HIIT. Of which dryland training with Nordic Racers provides a fine example. It is well established that HIIT training is very effective – so long as it is restricted to a balanced part of your overall training. Research indicates that we should start slow and build up to no more than three sessions per week. Doing more than that can compromise your immune system (circling back to COVID) and lead to overtraining.