Sporting a face mask during exercise safe for healthy people: Study

A new study suggests that wearing a protective face mask has only a modest effect on the ability of healthy people to carry out strenuous exercise.

For the study, the researchers conducted detailed testing on breathing, heart activity, and exercise performance in a group of 12 people.

The findings did find differences in some measurements between wearing a mask and not wearing a mask. However, none of their results indicate any risk to health.

This suggests that masks could be worn safely during intense exercise, especially to reduce Covid-19 transmission between people visiting an indoor gym.

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One of the study authors, Elisabetta Salvioni from Centro Cardiologico Monzino, IRCCS, Milan, Italy said: “We know that the main route of transmission for coronavirus is via droplets in the breath and it’s possible that breathing harder during exercise could facilitate transmission, especially indoors.”

She added: “Research suggests that wearing a mask may help prevent the spread of the disease, but there is no clear evidence on whether masks are safe to wear during vigorous exercise.”

To address this question, researchers worked with a group of healthy volunteers made up of six women and six men with an average age of 40.

Each person took part in three rounds of tests on an exercise bike: once while not wearing a face mask; once wearing a surgical mask, once wearing a ‘filtering facepiece 2’ or FFP2 mask.

Also read: Humidity created after wearing face mask prevents Covid-19 spread: Study

The researchers then measured their breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, and the levels of oxygen in their blood.

Results of the tests showed that wearing a face mask had a small effect on the volunteers. There was an average reduction of around ten per cent in their ability to perform aerobic exercise.

The results also indicate that this reduction was probably caused by it being slightly harder for the volunteers to breathe in and out through the masks.

Another author Massimo Mapell from the Centro Cardiologico Monzino and the University of Milan said: “This reduction is modest and, crucially, it does not suggest a risk to healthy people doing exercise in a face mask, even when they are working to their highest capacity.”

He added: “While we wait for more people to be vaccinated against Covid-19, this finding could have practical implications in daily life, for example potentially making it safer to open indoor gyms. However, we should not assume that the same is true for people with a heart or lung condition. We need to do more research to investigate this question.”

The study was published in the European Respiratory Journal.

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