Wearing a protective face mask has only a modest effect on the ability of healthy people to do vigorous exercise, according to a study published today (Monday) in the European Respiratory Journal [1].
Researchers conducted detailed tests on breathing, heart activity and exercise performance in a group of 12 people while using an exercise bike with and without a mask.
Although they have found differences in some measurements between wearing a mask and not wearing a mask, they say that none of their results indicate any health hazard. This suggests that masks can be worn safely during intense exercise, for example, to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 between people visiting an indoor gym.
The study was conducted by a team of researchers, including Dr Elisabetta Salvioni of Centro Cardiologico Monzino, IRCCS, Milan, Italy, and Dr Massimo Mapelli and Professor Piergiuseppe Agostoni of Centro Cardiologico Monzino and the University of Milan.
Dr Salvioni said: “We know that the highway of transmission for coronavirus is via drops in the breath, and that it is possible to breathe harder during exercise, especially indoors. This suggests that wearing a mask may help to prevent the spread of the disease, but there is no clear evidence whether masks are safe to wear during strenuous exercise. ‘
To address this question, researchers put together a group of healthy volunteers consisting of six women and six men with an average age of 40. Each person participated in three rounds of exercise tests: once without wearing a face mask to wear, once a surgical mask (blue, disposable mask) and once a ‘filtering face piece 2’ or FFP2 mask (white, disposable mask that is believed to offer slightly better protection than a surgical mask).
While the volunteers used an exercise bike, the researchers measured their breathing, heart rate, blood pressure and the oxygen levels in their blood.
The results of the tests showed that wearing a face mask had a small effect on the volunteers. For example, there was an average reduction of about ten percent in their ability to perform aerobic exercise (according to their ‘peak VO2’, which is a measurement of the highest possible oxygen uptake).
The results also indicate that this reduction was probably caused by the fact that it was slightly more difficult for the volunteers to breathe in and out through the masks.
Dr Mapelli said: “This reduction is modest, and it is of great importance that it does not pose a risk to healthy people in a face mask to exercise, even if they are working to their highest capacity. While we wait that more people should be vaccinated against COIVD.19, this finding could have practical implications in daily life, for example, to make it safer to open indoor gyms.
“However, we should not assume that the same goes for people with a heart or lung condition. We need to do more research to investigate this question.”
The team is now studying the impact of wearing a face mask during daily activities, such as climbing stairs or doing homework, on healthy people and people with a heart or lung condition.
Professor Agostoni added: “COVID-19 has hit our region and our hospital so hard, with devastating consequences on a personal, professional and organizational level. Nevertheless, it was one of the many studies carried out with our enthusiasm by our young researchers. .
“We are particularly proud of this work because it began spontaneously during our free time in the otherwise depressing period of the current pandemic and our findings demonstrate the need for clinical research, even during an emergency.”
Professor Sam Bayat of Grenoble University Hospital, France, is chair of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Clinical Respiratory Physiology, Exercise and Functional Imaging Group and was not involved in the research. He said: ‘There are still gaps in our knowledge of how to limit the spread of COVID-19, but we believe that face masks play a role and that we are getting used to wearing face masks in public spaces such as shops, trains and buses.
“Although these results are preliminary and need to be confirmed with larger groups of people, it appears that face masks can also be worn safely for indoor sports and fitness activities, with a bearable impact on performance.”
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