Day eight marks more improvements in symptoms, ultimately to the point where they are nearly gone. As I’ve improved, the need to move around and reactivate my body becomes even more of a priority.

When the country went into shutdown back in March, many people tried to become creative when it came to workouts, especially in areas where gyms were closed. Isolation takes this concept and multiplies it by 100. There has to be a level of creativity that generates enough interest and motivation to even move around.

Of course, for the past week, any type of workout has resulted in me getting quickly drained. Even any kind of quick, bodyweight exercise leaves me needing a quick break as I find myself out of breath.

The rapid change of going from an athlete that was practicing every day to being locked down with nowhere to move is sudden and drastic. It would be reasonable to assume that having an athletic lifestyle would help to prevent some of these side effects, but alas that doesn’t seem to be the case.

I realize now why there is such worry about the impacts of this virus on younger people, even if it may not be deadly; the long-term effects are extremely worrisome. I simply do not know what the impact will be on my lungs in the next months.

There is a major mental impact in knowing that a percentage of the strength I’ve built up throughout the past seven months has just been subtracted and that I have to spend even more time redeveloping this. It is, in a smaller sense, just like losing a sports season due to COVID as we did in March. This is a theme that I’ve found when it comes to the virus; it causes many sudden stops that tries to erase the progress that came before or at least make it feel like a waste.

For now, I am left with exercises such as pushups, dips, air squats, and core workouts to maintain some kind of strength, though I feel like much of it has been depleted. Every day I feel a little bit stronger, but the worrying thing is just how long it will take to return to 100%.