Road to Recovery after Covid19

Do you also find it difficult to breathe after your covid infection? Do basic activities tire you out?

Coronavirus affects your lungs causing fluid to be filled in air sacs and fibrosis, not allowing oxygen exchange.

Here are a few physiotherapy tips to help you reduce tiredness, improve work capacity and increase muscle strength after covid19.

Body positions to help you breathe better
-Sleeping on your stomach (prone lying/proning) helps you to breathe better
-Active awake prone:
Prone --> Right side lying --> Sitting up 60°-90°
Keep changing your position after every 30mins
-Positions to relieve breathlessness.
Fix your arms to support so that it helps to breathe
1. Sitting with leaning forward
2. Standing with leaning forward
3. Standing with back support

1. Take slow deep breaths through your nose and breathe out through your mouth, pursing your lips
• Breathe in slowly through your nose to the count 1 - 2
• Breathe out slowly through pursed lips (like blowing out a candle) to the count 1 - 2 - 3 - 4
2. Belly breathing using the diaphragm
• Sit relaxed or lie on your back with a pillow below your knees
• Place hand on stomach, imagine it is a balloon. As you breathe in through your nose, your hand will move out and as you breathe out through your mouth, your hand will move in.

Active cycle breathing technique (ACBT) is a technique that has 3 phases
1. Breathing control (relaxed breathing): breathe in relaxed through your nose and out through your mouth. Do not exert.
2. Thoracic expansion (deep breaths): place hand on the sides of your chest. Breathing in through your nose, raise your arms up and breathe out through your mouth and bring your arms back down
3. Coughing/Huffing: Open your mouth and make a huh sound

Repeat steps 1, 2, 3 for 10-15mins. Take rest in between if required.

Using an incentive spirometer will help you practice taking deep breathes, which can help open your airways, prevent fluid or mucous from building up in your airways and make it easier for you to breathe.
-Sit relaxed. Hold the device at your eye level.
-Place the mouth piece in your mouth
-Breathing in through your mouth like sucking in on a straw. This is will raise the ball(s) up.
-Hold for 3s
-Release gently.
-Repeat it 15 times, every 2-3 hours.

There are also many ways to test your capacity
Breath Holding Capacity
-Count aloud without stopping your breath
-Try holding your breath
-Singing, humming or reading aloud are good breathing exercises

Walking Capacity
-Perform a 6-minute walk test. Ideally one should be able to walk 300-400 steps in a minute.