Comment by nhance | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nhance | Hacker News Reader

I feel like I should weigh in on this because I seem to be one of the unlucky ones with heart impact.

I'm 40 years old and prior to catching covid on Jan 1st I was in the best shape of my life. I ran 9 ultramarathons last year, including a 40 mile run on my birthday. I was double vaccinated and boosted on December 7th, all Moderna. I do 100 pushups and 100 squats a day and was regularly running 30 miles per week. (50km)

Covid took me out for 3 full weeks and my fitness wasn't enough to power through it. The first symptoms were extreme fatigue but what is hanging on is chest pain. I have had to significantly cut back my training.

Only in the last week do I feel like I can get back to a more normal pace and that's with a measured concern to not overdo it. I always feel great at the time, but afterwards I'm paying the price.

I plan to continue training at a reduced effort to try and bring back my fitness. I've never had something that holds on for so long before.

I was 28 when I got it (alpha flavor). Resting heart rate rose by ~20 bpm, blood pressure went from <120/<80 to stage 2 hypertension (>140/>90). High enough that it gave me dizzy spells and chest pains. Two years later I've got my blood pressure mostly under control (2L+ water daily, low sodium, high fiber, no NSAIDs) but my pulse is still elevated.

Lungs also took a serious beating, but mostly recovered. I had a bronchoscopy and was the youngest patient they had seen in years. Bronchoscopy showed an absurdly high number of white blood cells in my lungs ~18 months post-covid- evidence of inflammation and extremely reactive tissue.

It likes to make sure you remember it, that's for sure.

Were you vaccinated?

You were overtraining and covid forced you to rest for once. No 40 year old should be doing 100 pushups per day 7 days a week. That's ridiculous.

That’s a ridiculous assertion to make

Is it? You don't need 100 pushups to build muscle. At a certain point you are well overdoing it, and definitely not doing your joints any favors. So why do it?

Overtraining is a real thing, and this person is doing it. Either that or they're embellishing to make a point.

If you're in shape, 100 pushups in a day isn't crazy...

No embellishment here. Today is 879 days in a row and I've tracked them all in an app I wrote.

The last 6 months, minus a week has been with 25 of them in burpee form.

I break them up throughout the day, it's not a lot of exercise at all. It feels like the bare minimum to stay in overall functional fitness shape. It's nice to have the strength to do whatever I'd like to do on tap anytime.

9 ultramarathons in a year may have been over-training however. (Towards the end it was getting to be one every other weekend just for kicks.)

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