Resistance exercise improves persistent Covid

A team of researchers from the University of Glasgow (United Kingdom) has shown that a three months of resistance exercise can help improve the physical and mental symptoms of those patients with Persistent Covidbenefits that are also replicated in those people who have overcome a serious Covid-19 infection.

The results of the study, presented at the 2025 Annual Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association and published in the magazine ‘JAMA Network’, has shown that participants in the exercise program have obtained greater grip strength afterwards and a better quality of life, with less anxiety and depression, compared to participants who did not do this program.

After three months, those who participated in the trial’s resistance training program also achieved walking “significantly greater” distances in the shuttle walking test.

“Our study shows the benefits of resistance training in recovery from Covid-19 and suggests that people affected by persistent symptoms after Covid-19 could benefit from adopting this type of exercise,” said CISCO study principal investigator and Professor of Cardiology and Imaging at the University of Glasgow, Colin Berry.

After that, he expressed that these results represent another “encouraging progress” and that contribute to a greater collective understanding of the treatment of this condition.

Analysis of more than 230 patients

Also participating in the study were the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clydethe University of Dundee (United Kingdom) and the Tayside National Health Service (United Kingdom), and more than 230 people previously diagnosed with Covid-19 have been studied, either in a Primary Care center or in a hospital.

The participants have been randomly assigned to the group with a resistance training program and to the group that did not include it, receiving in the first case three categories of exercises, with personalized instructions according to their health status and capacity.

Initially, bedridden patients were asked to exercise lying down, while recovering participants were instructed to exercise sitting or standing. All participants had to perform upper body exercises at first, and incorporate lower body exercises only in the third week.

“The exercises were designed to be safe, simple and easy to do wherever and whenever it is most convenient for the participant, which means that it can be easily implemented in the community of people with persistent Covid,” said the director of the design of the exercise intervention and professor of Muscle and Metabolic Health at the University of Glasgow, Stuart Gray.

That is why he described as “extremely encouraging” the fact that this intervention has been effective in improving physical function, mental health and quality of life.