Effect of four-week home-based exercise program on immune response, fat and muscle mass in subjects recovered from COVID-19.

Objectives: A rehabilitation program for patients with COVID-19 may be required to improve related side effects. This study aimed to investigate the effect of a four-week home workout on body composition and serum levels of IL-6 and cortisol in men recovering from COVID-19.

Methods: The present study is quasi-experimental. To this end, 45 healthy individuals in Tehran were purposefully divided into three groups: those who recovered after COVID-19 (n=30), including two groups of exercise and non-exercise, and individuals who did not have COVID-19 (control) (15=n). The four-week training program included three days of training per week with Traband resistance stretches, weight body training, and cardio exercises. The smirnov-Kolmogorov test was employed for data normality. A one-way analysis of variance test will be used to compare both the mean of variables in groups and the mean of variables before and after the exercise, correlated t-test was employed at a significance level of 0.05.

Results: The results showed that serum levels of interleukin 6 and cortisol were significantly reduced in the recovered training group (p=0.001) and the non-trained recovery group (p=0.001) and a significant difference was observed between the groups (p=0.001). Furthermore, only in the recovered training group, did the fat percentage (p=0.001) and muscle mass (p=0.001) respectively decreased and increased.

Conclusions: Four-week home training improves body composition by reducing body fat percentage and increasing muscle mass. In addition, lowering interleukin-6 and cortisol leads to reduced inflammation, faster recovery, and increased immunity.