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Body Battery and recovery from serious covid

Hiya folks, just picked up a Garmin Forerunner Plus 45, mainly for the body battery and to help me manage my return to fitness.

Little background, 4 months ago I was taken seriously ill with covid and hospitalised for around 3 weeks. Only in the last 6 weeks have I started walking again, and can now drive and walk for around 15-20 minutes for exercise.

One issue i've struggled with is anxiety and fear of relapse (it happened early on, although seems unlikely now)

I've found that my HRV, although improving, is still relatively low, so recharging my body battery through the day is impossible!! Even overnight is tricky, if I have a bad nights sleep.

However, I tend to feel better than my battery indicates. 

I suspect the battery is draining to 10 by the end of the day, simply because pretty much any activity makes my HRV drop. After exercise its usually around 10-20, and even resting its in the mid 20s. Occasionally it jumps to 50, on rest days, but as soon as I exert it drops.

Prior to all this illness, I was a decent 5k runner for my age of 49 at the time, and could run it in about 28 - 25 minutes. I cycled and hiked too.

I wonder, have any others been in a situation similar? How have you found the body battery?

  • Endurance cyclist here and going through the same thing. Had a pretty serious bout. Been a month and a half and battery is anywhere between 17 and 60 overnight. Said I wasn't going to get back on the bike until it said 80 in the morning, but not sure I can wait that long. Through the day it will drain down to single digits. Even if I nap on the weekend, it doesn't come up during the day. Getting old. 

  • I suspect it's the way the battery is calculated. When recovering from covid, your HRV is low most of the time, as just walking, or making a meal, can be a huge effort! Mine can peak to 50 or 60, but averages 20-30 most of the time, as the limited exercise I do makes me very tired!

    Were you in hospital with covid? How has it impacted you, say, walking to the shops, or going for a walk?

    I find that if I do a 1.2km walk, other than baseline activities, such as making meals etc, I struggle to do much else!

    I am Improving though

  • Did not got the the hospital but probably should have. Took the new Pfizer pill. Had only nausea and dizziness, not other symptoms and felt normal fitness wise, but couldn't ride because of the nausea. Body battery did not drop off for several days, could not leave the bed so I expected fitness to fall off. Like you, I've hit 50 and 60 a couple times, but mostly 20 or even lower. Normal day to day routine seems unaffected for the most part, but I do get EXHAUSTED easy by the end of the week and end up napping on Saturday afternoons after work. I don't have any stairs I regularly climb, but do quite a bit of walking. I've never walked anymore than I have to, but don't notice anything other than just being tired, loosing fitness and gaining wait. Figure I better wait until I hit 80 before getting back on the bike. Hang in there!!! 

       

  • Same here. I’m 15months post covid and my body battery was 16 when I got up this morning and I’m in need of recharging according to the watch. Is there a plug for that? (Sorry if the humour offends but having long covid means I need to laugh at times) 

  • My daughter is now using a 45S to track her body battery as she (slowly) recovers from long covid. You mentioned that your HRV is relatively low, was this an assumption based on your body battery level, or is there a way of getting an HRV metric directly from the watch?

    Hope you are well recovered now.