AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) – Amarillo gyms might be seeing an increase in elderly people with the life-saving impact exercise could have after recovering from COVID-19.
“Frailty is a risk factor for death. That’s what the biggest issue in elderly patients has been, once they’ve lost that muscle mass during COVID, it’s brutal, it’s very hard to get back from that,” said Kishore Yalamanchili, assistant professor of internal medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.
That is why Yalamanchili is recommending most of his patients over 65 who recover to work out more than they have in a while.
“The more de-conditioned you are, the more hours I would recommend doing that,” said Yalamanchili.
One of our Amarillo gyms is seeing a 15 percent increase in memberships from this.
“We have seen an increase and I think that is because more people are aware that they need to be more active in case they do get COVID or their post COVID and they’re trying to get back to normal,” said David Van Voris, general manager for Contagion Athletics.
One of the first things trainers at contagion athletics will do is have these types of clients work out with resistance bands.
They say this is the first step to getting that muscle mass back that was lost fighting COVID-19.
“We typically always use some type of resistance exercise using bands, we have hip circles, that you would put around your legs to utilize your hips or we have bands that to use for your upper body as well, so we try and start with some light band work and then we’ll typically work in some cable machines and eventually some free weight stuff,” said Van Voris.
The doctor says the gym is not enough, you must change your diet substantially.
“Plenty of extra protein that you never would have eaten before is reasonable,” said Yalamanchili.
All of this can be quite challenging for someone who just recovered.
“How you’re going to get motivated to do this while feeling poorly is the tough part,” said Yalamanchili.
Original Article Here: https://www.newschannel10.com/2020/12/03/elderly-are-highly-recommended-exercise-after-covid-recovery/