Physical Activity Recommendations during COVID-19: Narrative Review

Abstract

Regular practice of physical activity plays a fundamental role in preventing and treating cardiovascular diseases such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. During the pandemic caused by COVID-19 and the lockdown established, people have reduced considerably their mobility and motor activity, which has led to an increase in unhealthy lifestyle habits, raising the risk of suffering from diseases. This paper consists of reviewing the existing scientific literature on recommendations of physical activity during the pandemic and to establish specific guidelines according to the type of population to which the activity would be directed. A search strategy has been carried out in the different databases: Embase, PubMed, SCOPUS, SPORTDiscus, and Web of Science (WoS), including all the articles published until 14 May 2020, to find essays with recommendations on aerobic activity, muscle strengthening, flexibility-stretching, meditation-relaxation, and balance exercises. The articles found have been evaluated considering the following criteria: type of publication, proposals for physical exercise, language, and, if it appears, volume of activity, frequency, intensity, and rest. The results obtained 29 articles that discuss patterns of physical activity, although there is no common consensus on such recommendations during confinement, nor are they suitable for all people. From these results, we can conclude that physical activity is widely recommended during the confinement caused by COVID-19, mainly through the performance of aerobic, strength, flexibility, and balance exercises.

Effect of COVID-19 on Health-Related Quality of Life in Adolescents and Children: A Systematic Review

“…According to a systematic review, children should perform 60-180 min of daily moderate to vigorous physical activity and use their own bodyweight or light weights during strength training [48]. However, in children and adolescents who were not involved previous to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is recommended to continue moderate-intensity exercise every day for 10 to 15 min [49]. Furthermore, another relevant factor which should be considered in the decrease of HRQoL in children and adolescents are parents.…”

The program for monitoring students' walking and running according to the system "10,000 steps a day" during the spread of COVID-19

“…Analysis of studies on the dependence of the increase in physical health indicators of student youth (Hildebrand et al, 2014, Thijs et al, 2019 on the systematic nature of their aerobic motor activity during the spread of COVID-19 proves the reliability and relevance of the results obtained in the study (Pitanga et al, al., 2020;Raiola et al, 2020). It is the systematic daily monitoring of aerobic activity that has a positive effect on the functional and health-preserving development of the body (Polero et al, 2021). The need for high-quality monitoring of physical activity of students is emphasized by specialists, since there is a significant risk of error in assessing the volume of physical activity of student youth (Cholewa et al, 2020;.…”

“…In the 2020 coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, a significant part of the population of the Russian Federation, Europe and the whole world was in self-isolation mode in the spring and summer (Saatchian & Azimkhani, 2020). In the first half of this year, most of the special sports facilities for active physical education and sports were closed (Chen et al, 2020;Polero et al, 2021). Under such conditions, the majority of students' youth did not have the opportunity to engage in physical exercises (Berrigan et al, 2020;Halabchi et al, 2020).…”

Relação entre atividade física, COVID-19 e imunidade: Uma revisão de literatura

“…Assim, observou-se que as atividades físicas regulares de moderada intensidade melhoram o sistema imunológico e, consequentemente, diminuem a predisposição às infecções, principalmente as respiratórias (Nigro et al, 2020;Leandro, Ferreira e Silva & Lima-Silva, 2020;Onagbiye, Mchiza, Bassett, Travill & Eijnde, 2020), bem como, podem atenuar a gravidade e a duração de infecções virais as quais incluem, possivelmente, a infecção por COVID-19 (Nigro et al, 2020;Alkhatib, 2020;Zbinden-foncea, Francaux, Deldicque & Hawley, 2020). Nesse sentido, o mecanismo, que permite aumentar o sistema imunológico, envolve a ação mais eficiente dos macrófagos juntamente com a maior ativação de imunoglobulinas, citocinas anti-inflamatórias, neutrófilos, células T citotóxicas e B imaturas (Nigro et al, 2020;Polero et al, 2020;Yamada & Pólis, 2020).…”