Post-COVID Pandemic Pilates: A floor-based mini workout

Posted on 25 May, 2022

Are you recovering from COVID? How are you feeling?

Pilates is a perfect movement recipe when you’re stuck at home, feeling unmotivated, with minimal equipment, and have been recovering from COVID.

Over the next month, we are focussing on Pandemic Pilates for those recovering from COVID. Mini workouts only with just four exercises.

This series will be aimed at those Canberrans who experienced mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19, aren’t experiencing long-COVID symptoms and were regularly working out before having COVID.

Are you concerned about long-COVID? The most prevalent symptoms of long-COVID are memory and cognition impairment, fatigue, sleep disruption, dyspnea (shortness of breath), and joint pain. Be very mindful of these symptoms and communicate with your health practitioners about your recovery.

Ready to get started?

Here’s an article if you’re interested in learning about the four stages of COVID recovery. It’s important to understand the stages and be kind to yourself (drop those expectations!).

Once you have been asymptomatic for 7-10 days (for example, no fever, no breathlessness at rest, no chest pain, or palpitations), we can start thinking about a structured graded exercise program.

Remember:

• Consult your doctor before commencing your physical activity program to assess potential complications, eg: myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) or pulmonary conditions.
• Consult an Allied Health Professional who specialises in exercise prescription, to guide you through the recovery stages, and give you suggestions for alternative activity options.
• There is no exact algorithm to determine when you can return to activity, and at what intensity. It depends on the individual, what level of activity you were doing pre-COVID, and what degree of the viral load you had/have in your system.
• Start with light ‘physical activity’ (eg: taking out the washing, vacuuming, etc). Once you are recovering from the lighter activities of daily living and have an idea of your tolerance level, then return to structured light “exercise”.
• Monitor your heart rate during and after exercise.

Pilates is a wonderful form of movement training, providing a combination of strength, stability, alignment, awareness, breathwork and mobility.

After COVID Pandemic Pilates

You can print the PDF here

Start with 2 sets of 6 repetitions and work your way up to 10-12 repetitions (depending on how you recover from the session).

1) Lower Trunk Rotation – breath to movement.

2) Open Book (focus on deep breaths – deep into the lateral ribcage)

3) Bridge on the floor (lower intensity strength & stability)

4) Table-Top Foot Drops (breath and control)

If you are struggling to complete this above Pandemic Pilates session, I’d recommend consulting your doctor, and seeing an allied health professional who has experience in graded exercise programming, managing workload, flare-ups and fatigue.

At Capital Hydrotherapy we can tailor a home movement program for you to help manage your recovery. Managing expectations and energy is essential.

Do you have any workout requests? Let us know!

Love, Kirra and Rach