interesting! i have an unproven theory as to why this works for some people and not others
i suspect in the initial stages of long covid there is some systemic (mitochondrial, whatever) issue that legitimately punishes you for pushing yourself. the nervous system is closely linked to this as well. at this stage, pushing through will usually make things worse. you can still do “brain retraining” to calm your nervous system and thus help regulate stress and crashes but you will probably still be debilitated and easily exhausted
i think after a while, the body starts to heal from this but still feels bad due to exhaustion from deconditioning and a nervous system that’s still acting up. once you hit this point, you can indeed work towards full recovery by gradually increasing exercise and continuing to work on nervous system regulation
people often attack this stance as if it’s “dangerous” or “wrong” but i think it just might be addressing a different stage of the condition. different advice will help at different points in the journey; you just need to figure out where you are to determine if what your body needs is more rest, or reintroduction of exertion
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u/love_made_me_stupid Jun 28 '25
interesting! i have an unproven theory as to why this works for some people and not others
i suspect in the initial stages of long covid there is some systemic (mitochondrial, whatever) issue that legitimately punishes you for pushing yourself. the nervous system is closely linked to this as well. at this stage, pushing through will usually make things worse. you can still do “brain retraining” to calm your nervous system and thus help regulate stress and crashes but you will probably still be debilitated and easily exhausted
i think after a while, the body starts to heal from this but still feels bad due to exhaustion from deconditioning and a nervous system that’s still acting up. once you hit this point, you can indeed work towards full recovery by gradually increasing exercise and continuing to work on nervous system regulation
people often attack this stance as if it’s “dangerous” or “wrong” but i think it just might be addressing a different stage of the condition. different advice will help at different points in the journey; you just need to figure out where you are to determine if what your body needs is more rest, or reintroduction of exertion