Exercise Rehabilitation Strategies for Long-Term Conditions in the Post-Pandemic Era

Dear Colleagues,

The SARS-coV-2 pandemic has exponentially increased the need for rehabilitation, not only for patients with acute forms of COVID-19, admitted to the ICU, but also for those with post-COVID syndrome and for those who suffer from long COVID, as the COVID-19 pandemic profoundly reduced their quality of life, hindered their ability to return to work, and dramatically increased symptoms such as fatigue. Patients with long COVID suffer from worsening symptoms after exercise, orthostatic tachycardia, and other problems, causing them to be unable to adhere to exercise programmes and thus requiring personalised prescriptions.

Concerning patients with long COVID specifically, the symptom that has most profoundly impaired their quality of life is fatigue. Patients report being told to exercise, but they then experience a worsening of symptoms post-exercise, often requiring days or weeks of recovery. Publications on therapeutic exercise have increased, but these rarely include clear dosing that would allow for trial replication, and the protocols are often too generic to meet research objectives.

To address this research need, we are interested in exercise programmes for cases of acute COVID-19 infection but are particularly interested in therapeutic exercise programmes for patients with post-COVID syndrome and long COVID. We are interested in personalized protocols, with great adherence, which is notoriously difficult to implement for patients suffering from fatigue. We believe this research can guide clinicians and physiotherapists in prescribing exercise in order to implement safe and successful programmes.

We welcome cutting-edge research on the topics of avant-garde rehabilitation medicine and physiotherapy, which should focus on personalised prescription programmes based on the physiological mechanisms underlying long COVID. We especially welcome randomised clinical trials that can respond to the needs of rehabilitation physicians and clinical physiotherapists, as well as to the pressing need to improve the quality of life of patients with long COVID and post-COVID syndrome.

Prof. Dr. David Varillas-Delgado
Guest Editor

Prof. Dr. Sofía Laguarta-Val
Guest Editor Assistant

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• therapeutic exercise
• long covid
• post-COVID syndrome
• sports medicine
• rehabilitation medicine
• physiotherapy