got COVID for the first time this past week. tons of conflicting information on returning to exercise - some say wait as long as 2 weeks, others say as needed, few distinguish between lifting and more cardio demanding sports. anybody have a source they trust on these questions?
I have the impression that it varies wildly and is a “listen to your body” type of thing.
The problem is that most of us haven’t learned to speak body.
I tend to recommend more rest, but I do that anyway. For lifting, it wouldn’t hurt to try something like Dan John’s Easy Strength.
My experience isn’t useful — I have a fatigue disorder that isn’t long Covid, me/cfs, or PEM. I will say it takes a lot longer than that to lose your strength base (if you were peaking that’s fucked anyway).
IME, every time I’ve talked a serious lifter into resting more, their gains _improve._
It’s that experience — the guy whose CrossFit total broke 1000 after _years_ of being stuck at ~980, etc — that makes me think a lot of us aren’t recovering enough anyway and wouldn’t know how enough rest even feels, so maybe rest more than you think.
Yeah — I picked that example because it’s more useful to someone who’s been lifting a while, also because it was super funny. It took me almost two years to talk him into resting more, lol.
