UKC

Any recommendations for exercise routines to speed up the recovery from COVID? main symptoms shortness of breath and lack of oomph!

If there is, I did not find it.

Just time for your body to slowly recover.

Don't!

Rest and recuperation and are only way to let your body heel, trying to exercise your way back to health after covid has been proven time and again as an excellent way to trigger long covid.

Listen to your body and of you are well enough maintain mobility and gentle activities, but it's better to suffer a loss of fitness after infection than risk failing to recover. Personally I strongly believe that the reason so many athletes are suffering from LC is because of their ability to push through the pain barrier and not listen to their bodies, so failing take time out to recuperate after the initial infection because they want to get back to full fitness.

Sitting on the sofa. Sitting in the garden. Spending a little extra time in bed every day. Maybe a lot of extra time! Breathwork and meditation if you have the energy. Maybe a very little light stretching. 

But whatever you do, don’t return exercise too quickly. Don’t get out of breath yet. You absolutely do not want to exacerbate this, that’s the difference between looking at a month off vs a six months or a year off. Check out the Facebook group “endurance athletes with long covid” for extra info from people who’ve been there, got the t-shirt. 

Note that I’m not a doctor, usual caveats apply, go see your GP if necessary.

I can only reiterate what everyone else has said; one of my climbing partners got back to activity a bit too quickly after having the plague, and a combination of a week in Orpierre and then some skiing with her family immediately afterwards utterly broke her, and she still hasn't fully recovered now half a year on.

Had it in Feb, mild in a relative sense, but from researching up various bits, those in the know said you should rest 1 week after the last symptoms pass, then spend a month building back up to where you were, first week roughly 30% of previous training, 50, 70, 90... even then it said go cautiously, as despite the vaccine your body has been working hard internally to fight it etc... if you're out of breath that's a sign to take it easy, not to ramp it up. 

Edit, if you count time when i had symptoms i was probably either not training or slowly building for 2 months, plus another month after where I'd throw in random extra off days. I'd consider myself lucky compared to some though, 3 months before back to full wack, despite being a pretty fit 50ish year old, triple vaxed and with a normal resting hr under 50. Covid is a bugger. 

Sounds like you were given really good advice. Too many people think covid is something you can bounce straight back from, but even mild infections are really debilitating and the majority of people need time to convalesce before returning to a normal routine.