COVID-19 and athletes: Endurance sport and activity resilience study—CAESAR study

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and imposed restrictions influenced athletic societies, although current knowledge about mild COVID-19 consequences on cardiopulmonary and physiologic parameters remains inconclusive. This study aimed to assess the impact of mild COVID-19 inflection on cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) performance among endurance athletes (EA) with varied fitness level.Materials and Methods: 49 EA (nmale = 43, nfemale = 6, mean age = 39.94 ± 7.80 yr, height = 178.45 cm, weight = 76.62 kg; BMI = 24.03 kgm−2) underwent double treadmill or cycle ergometer CPET and body analysis (BA) pre- and post-mild COVID-19 infection. Mild infection was defined as: (1) without hospitalization and (2) without prolonged health complications lasting for >14 days. Speed, power, heart rate (HR), oxygen uptake (VO2), pulmonary ventilation, blood lactate concentration (at the anaerobic threshold (AT)), respiratory compensation point (RCP), and maximum exertion were measured before and after COVID-19 infection. Pearson’s and Spearman’s r correlation coefficients and Student t-test were applied to assess relationship between physiologic or exercise variables and time.Results: The anthropometric measurements did not differ significantly before and after COVID-19. There was a significant reduction in VO2 at the AT and RCP (both p < 0.001). Pre-COVID-19 VO2 was 34.97 ± 6.43 ml kg·min−1, 43.88 ± 7.31 ml kg·min−1 and 47.81 ± 7.81 ml kg·min−1 respectively for AT, RCP and maximal and post-COVID-19 VO2 was 32.35 ± 5.93 ml kg·min−1, 40.49 ± 6.63 ml kg·min−1 and 44.97 ± 7.00 ml kg·min−1 respectively for AT, RCP and maximal. Differences of HR at AT (p < 0.001) and RCP (p < 0.001) was observed. The HR before infection was 145.08 ± 10.82 bpm for AT and 168.78 ± 9.01 bpm for RCP and HR after infection was 141.12 ± 9.99 bpm for AT and 165.14 ± 9.74 bpm for RCP. Time-adjusted measures showed significance for body fat (r = 0.46, p < 0.001), fat mass (r = 0.33, p = 0.020), cycling power at the AT (r = −0.29, p = 0.045), and HR at RCP (r = −0.30, p = 0.036).Conclusion: A mild COVID-19 infection resulted in a decrease in EA’s CPET performance. The most significant changes were observed for VO2 and HR. Medical Professionals and Training Specialists should be aware of the consequences of a mild COVID-19 infection in order to recommend optimal therapeutic methods and properly adjust the intensity of training.

Ergogenic Effects of the Combination of Caffeine and New Zealand Blackcurrant Supplements: A Double-Blind Singe-Case Experimental Study

“…Due to the fact that 50% of the measurements in phase NZBC were affected by subject A's illness, the median across all data points (3.51 W/kg) probably did not reflect the actual performance of subject A (the MD of the two performances before disease: 3.65 W/kg). A study by Śliż et al [24] indicated that maximal heart rate and oxygen volume values could be less pronounced during cardiorespiratory graded tests, even long after COVID-19 infection. In subject A, this was found to be true with respect to oxygen volume when comparing the pre-(VO2 = 4.67 L/min) and post-COVID-19 (VO2 = 4.31 L/min) measurements in the NZBC phase.…”

Impact of COVID-19 Infection on Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Sleep, and Psychology of Endurance Athletes– CAESAR Study

“…(5) EAs adopted different strategies of coping with stress, which was associated with the influence on lean body mass, (6) were analyzed in remaining CAESAR manuscripts [34,35].…”

Cardiopulmonary Profiling of Athletes with Post-Exertional Malaise after COVID-19 Infection—A Single-Center Experience

“…It has been shown that VO2peak is considerably lower in patients who have been hospitalized (29.2 ± 0.3 mL/kg/min) due to COVID-19 infection (and even worse in ICU patients with a mean VO2peak value of 25.5 mL/kg/min) compared to those who were non-hospitalized (33.7 ± 7.0 mL/kg/min) [6]; VO2peak in the latter group was comparable to that of our recreational athletes. Additionally, VO2peak has recently been shown to be a reasonable marker for demonstrating exercise limitations after mild COVID-19 infection in endurance athletes compared to CPET before the infec-tion (47.8 ± 7.8 mL/kg/min vs. 44.97 ± 7.00 mL/kg/min) [8]. However, the VO2peak findings from this study, which contained a similar sample size to that of our population (n = 49), must be interpreted with caution.…”

“…Although cardiorespiratory fitness expressed by VO2peak has been shown to be higher in non-hospitalized patients with COVID-19 infection as opposed to patients admitted to hospitals or even to the intensive care unit [6], hospitalization rates in athletes have been shown to be low [7]. However, a considerable decline in VO2peak has been demonstrated recently in endurance athletes following mild COVID-19 infection [8].…”