With the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, face masks have become a normal part of doing just about any activity outside the house.
After the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended wearing a mask during indoor activity, some people raised legitimate concerns about how this could affect those exercising.
Director of Sport Safety at UConn’s Korey Stringer Institute Ayami Yoshihara recently published a paper in “Sports Health” demonstrating that exercising with a face mask on does not significantly increase body temperature or heart rate during exercise.
As recommendations changed rapidly over the course of the pandemic there was a significant need for scientific guidance about exercising whilst wearing a face mask. This study is the first to provide evidence to demonstrate that wearing face masks while exercising does not add any risk to health.
This study took place over the summer. During the study, participants walked or jogged for 60 minutes in a 90 degree-Fahrenheit environment at low to moderate exercise intensities.
Yoshihara and her team also measured the humidity and temperature inside and outside of the face mask using a sensor which was placed inside and outside of the facemasks on participants’ .
While some participants did report a greater degree of breathing discomfort during exercise with a face mask because of the changes in humidity and temperature inside of the face mask, there was no correlation between reported discomfort and measures of body temperature and heart rate.
Yoshihara hopes this research can help shape guidelines for athletes who are exercising and competing during the summer and into the fall while ambient temperatures are still high, especially as vaccination rates outside the U.S. remain low.
“It’s feasible and safe to use masks during low to moderate intensity exercise in the heat,” Yoshihara says.
While this study did not look at how well these masks prevent the spread of COVID-19, Yoshihara says this is a future area of study she is interested in investigating. She says it is important that face mask recommendations promote safety both in terms of exertional heat illness and airborne virus transmission.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210908180603.htm
