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Long COVID Rehabilitation

Long COVID (or Post COVID-19 Condition) can have a huge impact on your ability to achieve daily activities and experience quality of life. It can be tricky to navigate through information and know where to turn for help. Our Accredited Exercise Physiologists are trained to work with individuals who have Long COVID and might be managing symptoms from fatigue to shortness of breath to mental health challenges (and everything in between). We will work with your healthcare team to return to pre-COVID-19 daily life function and manage ongoing problematic symptoms, guided by your individual goals.

How can Exercise Physiologists help with Long COVID?

Our Accredited Exercise Physiologists are University-Qualified Allied Health Professionals who are trained to work with people with Long COVID. Our role is to work with your medical team to assist you in achieving full recovery and return to pre-COVID-19 daily life function, guided by your individual goals (whether that include a return to work or sport etc.); and manage ongoing problematic symptoms to prevent any further de-conditioning or secondary illness.

How do I know if I have Long-COVID?

Long COVID, otherwise known as Post COVID-19 condition, refers to symptoms that persist long term (for 12 weeks or longer) after the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection (with the exclusion of any other diagnosis).

Some of the symptoms and bodily systems affected might be:

  • Fatigue (mental/cognitive or physical, after exertion, difficulty concentrating, brain fog)
  • Pulmonary (breathlessness, persistent cough)
  • Cardiovascular (palpitations/dysrhythmias, fainting, chest pain, breathlessness)
  • Orthostatic Intolerance/ POTS syndrome (dizziness, difficulty standing, headaches, muscle pain, fever/temperature regulation difficulties, GI symptoms, sweating, salt craving, light sensitivity)
  • Neuromuscular (muscle weakness or sensory complaints, cognitive impairment, headaches)
  • Mental health (increases in irritability, loss of enjoyment of usual activities, loss of humour, changes in sleep patterns, symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression and/or post-traumatic stress)

Graded exercise therapy (GET) means that we start small and progressively increase your exercise over time, taking into account how your body is tolerating the activity and other symptoms that you may be experiencing. This means that our exercise recommendations are tailored to your individual abilities with adaptations made depending on your current health status and symptoms, and their effect on your quality of life.

 

 

Not sure where to start?

We offer a Gap Free* Assessment which allows us to gain a good understanding of your health status and history, what your goals are, and develop a plan on how we can get you there.

*No out of pocket cost for those with private health covering Exercise Physiology

Because there are so many symptoms and body systems affected, there is a big range in how an individual may present, but generally this will have an impact on every day functioning. These can also fluctuate or relapse over time, and might be persistent from the initial illness or be a new onset after the initial recovery.

If you think you might have long COVID, we encourage you to speak with your GP for a medical review and to ascertain a management plan. Once this has been established, we can assist as exercise professionals to help you manage symptoms and return to quality of life.

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