Gaining Abilities and Maintaining Them to Manage Long Covid Symptoms

When we reach a certain position or level in life, work or fitness it is important to realize that this state is never static, and attention is needed for it to be maintained. Just like a clean house doesn’t stay clean, even if it’s empty; and for a garden to look its best, it requires constant attention. The same principle is true for athletes aiming to maintain peak performance and it is also true for those managing Long Covid symptoms—sustaining progress involves continuous use of the tools that helped you to improve and feel better in the first place.

I’m a former professional athlete and know firsthand that maintaining a high-level of fitness takes about the same amount of work as it took to get there in the first place; the difference is that the work itself is done at that new level once your ability increases. Training sessions can be done faster or further with the same level of exertion or heart rate as before. It’s possible to lift heavier weights with the same effort or to work on a new element to help enhance performance. At this point, the work itself also feels easier and is actually a lot of fun. If athletes stop working at that level, they will not be able to maintain a high-level of ability and will need to work harder to get back to the level they already achieved. I have been through that up and down cycle, so know it firsthand.

So, fine, that’s all great for high-end athletes. What does that have to do with supporting people experiencing Long Covid? In practice, the same dynamics are true for people who are experiencing Long Covid, including those who have found a path to manage their symptoms. Their current ability levels need to be developed and then maintained. Just like in sports, the foundation work is important to do regularly, but it will get easier.

Think of the foundation as the lowest level of ability that a person has at any given time. Depending on how strong the foundation is, they will be able to do more or less - on their good days as well as their bad days. When you are developing your foundation you have to build capability one step at a time. Skipping over foundational work or even attempting to jump over only one level will mean your body is not well prepared and more likely to let you down. In our blog article “Start as you mean to go on,” Katie expanded on the concept of practicing the habits and motor patterns you want to get better at right from the start. The same principle is true when it comes to foundation work. When we know where we want to go, we need to take things one step at a time to get there. Trying to leap frog over a step doesn’t support sustainable progress. It would be like building a third level of a building with heavier materials but without a solid foundation underneath - it will not have the staying power or strength you are hoping for.

I know using the word work and talking about continuous effort sounds like it could be difficult, but it doesn’t need to be. When you know what you are doing, why you are doing it, and how to get it done, it can be easier than you think to accomplish and you will benefit from the improvement in how you feel.

It may sound unfair that people who are already experiencing Long Covid symptoms are then advised to include a couple of extra tools in their daily routine, so that they can improve their foundation (and abilities) over time.

The perception about athletes is often that some just have more or less talent than others. I probably wasn’t totally talent-free, but I also wasn’t recognized by a talent scout. I had to work harder than someone with pure talent. Spending energy being frustrated that I needed to put in a bit more work than some other people would not have helped me to get to the Olympics; what helped was regularly doing the work that was necessary. I got to a point where I could train at a level some of the people with “talent” couldn't sustain. This allowed me to be able to compete against them. You may think that this doesn’t sound fun, but it was. Living the life I wanted to live was worth the effort. It didn’t feel hard doing the “hard” things – there was real satisfaction in the accomplishment. At one point my goal became to make sure I never felt like I could have had more opportunities, if only I had worked more consistently. I didn’t want to blame myself later on, wondering if I could have met my goals if I had put in the work more consistently. I didn’t get extra points for an extra training load, all that counted was what the result list said at the end of a competition.

When you are experiencing Long Covid and feel frustrated that you are at a stage where you need to find support and tools that fit you. I understand your frustration. But I also want to encourage you to include in your life the things that have the potential to allow you to live and feel the way you want to.

Often we want to have a guarantee about results for effort put in. In reality it isn’t that formulaic, but if you take the right steps the impacts are real. When I was standing at any start line, I had certain guarantees. I knew I would not end up being last unless something ridiculous happened. That guarantee was provided through the level of foundation I had built up. But foundation building wasn’t the goal in and of itself, the aim was to get on that podium. I had no guarantee, and I still started the race because I worked to get to the point where there was a chance.

When you are experiencing Long Covid, there is no guarantee you will be able to cross off everything on your bucket list, but there are tools, approaches, and support that can help you to take action to manage symptoms and feel more like yourself again - developing your baseline at the right pace is vital for success.

Like all athletes have to train, everyone who wants to stay healthy needs to consider what they need to improve their baseline and this is critically important for people experiencing post-viral conditions. With these conditions we know it is important for people to move, eat health-beneficial foods, sleep well, and avoid the things that don’t support well-being. Just like athletes who were not gifted top sporting ability at birth have to work a bit harder for the same goals, people with Long Covid need to include some tools (and specific movements) into their daily habits and live a healthy lifestyle more seriously than people who don’t live with post-viral conditions. But here is the good news. I didn’t win as many medals as others, but I won more than some talented athletes. You might not feel like the healthiest person after the first time you use tools that are beneficial for you, but by using them regularly your baseline will improve and your capabilities will grow. Over time you may be able to live your life with more abundance than many others who weren’t impacted by a post-viral condition, and had a reminder about the importance of including healthy elements in their days.

Of course, Long Covid symptom management is not a competition, but it is about setting your goals and using a combination of specific habits to develop, and maintain, your abilities. I had about 30 races in one season, which is a lot, but the year still has 365 days. The goal itself is just a marker and provides orientation and an objective to reach for; what really matters is regularly doing the things that make a goal realistic and within reach.

If you have been impacted by Long Covid or a post-viral condition, you have every reason to mourn what you have lost or feel mad that you have been impacted while others have not, and it is okay and totally understandable. But those emotions don’t change anything. What makes the difference is our own actions and decisions we make day-to-day about how we address the situation in front of us. Wherever you are starting from, you can develop your foundation and improve your current ability by using the power we have over our own lives, by taking the right small actions every day.

Warmly,
Andrea