BACKGROUND
Societal measures to contain the outspread of COVID-19 (e.g., lockdown, contact restrictions) have been associated with decreased health and well-being. A multitude of pre-pandemic studies identified the beneficial effects of physical exercise on both physical and mental health.
OBJECTIVE
Here, we report on the feasibility of a remote physical exercise intervention and its stress-buffering potential in two untrained cohorts: a pre-COVID-19 cohort that completed the intervention in 2019 and a lockdown cohort that started the intervention shortly before pandemic related restrictions were implemented.
METHODS
In a randomized controlled trial, participants were assigned to either an intervention group (IG, n_pre-COVID-19 = 7; n_lockdown = 9) or a control group (CG, n_pre-COVID-19 = 6; n_lockdown = 6). IG participants received weekly individualized training recommendations delivered via web-based support. The intervention period was initially planned for 8 weeks, which was adhered to in the pre-COVID-19 cohort (mean = 8.3 weeks, SD = 0.5) but was extended to on average 17.7 (SD = 2.0) weeks in the lockdown cohort. Participants’ health parameters were assessed pre- and post-intervention: Aerobic capacity was measured as peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) via cardiopulmonary exercise testing. Depressive symptoms were scored via the depression subscale of the Brief Symptom Inventory-18.
RESULTS
Dropout rates were low in both cohorts in the IG (pre-COVID-19: 0%, lockdown: 16.7%) and the CG (pre-COVID-19: 0%, lockdown: 20%). The mean adherence to the training sessions of the IG for both cohorts was 84% (SDpre-COVID-19 = 5.5%, SDlockdown cohort = 11.6%). Multivariate analyses of variance in the lockdown cohort indicated deterioration of VO2peak and depressive symptoms from pre- to post-intervention in the CG but no longitudinal changes in the IG. Analyses in the pre-COVID-19 cohort revealed significant increases in VO2peak for the IG compared to the CG but no group effects on depressive symptoms.
CONCLUSIONS
With low dropout rates and a high adherence, the remote intervention was feasible in healthy adults under regular conditions and in the face of pandemic-related stressors. Moreover, our results hint at a stress-buffering effect, as well as a buffering of a lockdown induced deconditioning of remote physical exercise interventions in the pandemic scenario, which can be used in future studies to overcome equally stressful periods of life.
CLINICALTRIAL
German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS; DRKS00018078; October 2, 2019)