CATEGORY: EXERCISE & MOVEMENT
Is it safe to push your muscles when COVID symptoms have dragged on for months? A trial in Scotland set out to answer exactly that. The answer came back yes, and then some: three months of home strength exercises added about 37 meters to how far people could walk in a standard fitness test, compared with usual care, and nothing about the program caused harm.1 Mood, grip strength and quality of life improved too. That’s a meaningful return on a set of exercises done in a living room with no gym and no equipment beyond a band.
Squats in the Living Room, a Call Every Two Weeks
The trial enrolled 233 adults who’d been diagnosed with COVID within the past year and still had symptoms. About four in ten had been hospitalized. Their median age was 54, and most were women. A random draw, not anyone’s judgment of who seemed fit enough, decided who got the program. Half received three months of personalized resistance exercise. That means strength work: moving your body or a weight against resistance, as in squats, lunges, calf raises and press-ups. The program met people where they were. Someone confined to bed got lying presses and rows. Someone who could sit up got seated versions. Ambulatory participants did the standing set. Everyone got a support call every two weeks. The other half received usual care.
Thirty-Seven Meters, and What Came With Them
Walking capacity was measured with a shuttle test, in which you walk between two markers to the pace of beeps that speed up every minute. Both groups improved over three months, as people recovering from COVID tend to do. But the exercise group gained more: 83 meters on average, against 47 meters with usual care. The difference of 36.5 meters is a bit farther than a basketball court is long. People stuck with it, too. Median adherence worked out to about five exercise days a week. Alongside the walking gains, the exercise group scored better on quality of life, reported less anxiety and depression, and added 2.6 kilograms of grip strength. No adverse events were linked to the exercises.
Why Anyone Doubted This Would Work
Exercise is a loaded subject in long COVID, because some people crash after exertion. The researchers knew the ground they were on. A 2023 pooled analysis of rehabilitation studies had found improvements in exercise capacity and quality of life, but rated the certainty of that evidence low and noted that safety data were largely missing.2 This trial was run to fill that gap with a proper randomized comparison. It can’t answer everything. The program lasted three months, so we don’t know whether the gains hold up over a year. And participants chose to join an exercise trial, which tells you something about who these results describe. Still, for a condition with no approved treatment, a safe, cheap program that people actually completed is worth knowing about.
Key Takeaways
- Three months of home strength exercises, tailored to each person’s ability, improved walking distance by 36.5 meters more than usual care in adults with lingering COVID symptoms.
- Quality of life, anxiety, depression and grip strength all improved more with exercise, and no harms were tied to the program.
- The trial stopped at three months, so it can’t say whether the gains last, and its participants were people willing and able to join an exercise study.
References
- Berry C, McKinley G, Bayes HK, et al. Resistance Exercise Therapy After COVID-19 Infection: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Network Open. 2025;8(11):e2534304. link
- Pouliopoulou DV, MacDermid JC, Saunders E, et al. Rehabilitation Interventions for Physical Capacity and Quality of Life in Adults With Post-COVID-19 Condition: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JAMA Network Open. 2023;6(9):e2333838. link