Wearing a cloth face mask while exercising ‘increases breathlessness and claustrophobia’

Wearing a cloth face mask while exercising leads to worse performance, according to the results of a small trial.  

It found that when donning a face covering, a person’s exercise duration drops by 14 per cent while participants also recorded increased feelings of  breathlessness and claustrophobia when exercising at higher intensities.    

The results of the trial on 31 healthy adults have been published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM).

Thirty of the participants said that the task — running on a treadmill to exhaustion — was harder when wearing a face covering.

World Health Organization (WHO) guidance backs up the finding, stating: ‘People should NOT wear masks when exercising, as masks may reduce the ability to breathe comfortably’. 

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Wearing a cloth face mask while exercising leads to worse performance, according to the results of a small trial (stock)

Masks have been mandated in much of the world as they are a highly effective way of preventing transmission of coronavirus particles between people. 

Face coverings were first made mandatory for public transport in June and later for shops and other indoor spaces, after heated debates about whether they actually slow the spread of Covid. 

They remain optional in outdoor spaces, with evidence suggesting coronavirus is less transmissible outside.

But in some gyms, people are required to wear face coverings when they work out. 

In gyms, the risk of catching the virus is higher than outside but can be minimised with adequate ventilation and other measures, such as social distancing. 

Researchers from the US tasked 31 adults aged 18 to 29 with running on a treadmill until exhaustion. 

They did this twice, once with a cloth mask on and once unmasked. 

Blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation, exertion and shortness of breath were measured and recorded after a three-minute warm-up, during the exercise, and seven minutes after they had finished. 

Data showed that wearing a mask led to a significant reduction in exercise time of 14 per cent. Maximal oxygen consumption also dropped by almost a third (29 per cent).

Participants also reported feeling increasingly short of breath and claustrophobic at higher exercise intensities while wearing a mask. 

The volunteers said the mask made it harder to exercise and that they fatigued quicker when working harder.

Participants also mentioned feeling ‘claustrophobic’, ‘suffocated’ and ‘anxious’ while wearing the mask and taking ‘shorter, more shallow breaths with the face covering’. 

The researchers say that their results do not fully explain why mask wearing may directly limit a person’s running ability. 

They speculate that the discomfort that comes with exercising with a mask led to the reduction in performance.

‘Our results have several implications for training and performance while wearing a cloth face mask,’ they add.

‘First, as wearing a cloth mask reduced exercise performance, VO2 peak and related variables, training variables of frequency, intensity, time and type of activity should be modified accordingly.

‘Second, exercise goals can be modified to reflect the reduced performance and psychological impact of wearing a cloth mask while still promoting safe goal attainment.’

Work by Dr Trisha Greenhalgh, professor of primary care at the University of Oxford and a GP, published in April last year was highly influential in getting masks adopted in early 2020 by the general public to help curb the spread of Covid-19. 

Professor Greenhalgh also believes Covid is airborne, allowing it to spread easily through the air.

This theory has divided the scientific community, leading to fierce debate with eminent experts falling on either side of the argument.    

The subject spilled over into the public consciousness when a tangential debate was struck up on whether or not people should wear masks when out for a run. 

Some studies have previously found that exercising with a mask can lead to health issues. 

One paper claimed it can lead to ‘hypercapnic hypoxia, potentially increasing acidic environment, cardiac overload, anaerobic metabolism and renal overload’.

But Professor Greenhalgh and other academics fired back, rubbishing the findings. 

Professor Greenhalgh later went on Good Morning Britain and said the ‘puffing and panting’ of people who are exercising poses an increased threat of transmission and these people should therefore wear a mask. 

‘There is no doubt the virus is in the air. There is no doubt you can catch it if you inhale air that someone else has exhaled,’ she said. 

A study found that when donning a face covering, a person’s exercise duration drops by 14 per cent. A mask also leads to increased feelings of breathlessness and claustrophobia when exercising at higher intensities with a mask on (stock)

‘The exercising jogger, the puffing and panting jogger, you can feel their breath come and you can sometimes actually feel yourself inhale it. So there’s no doubt that there is a danger there. 

‘The other thing to say is that 40 per cent of Covid cases happen by catching it from people who have no symptoms.

‘So you’re jogging along, you think you’re fine and the next day you’ve developed symptoms of Covid but you’ve actually breathed that Covid on to someone. You know an old lady walking a dog or something like that. I think it’s very important to be socially responsible.’

She also said that the World Health Organization had ‘dragged its feet’ over mask wearing.  

But Dr Jake Dunning, an infectious disease expert at Public Health Expert, said the suggestion that people wear masks outdoors is shifting the focus away from high risk indoor transmission of the virus.

He said on Twitter: ‘[Forcing joggers to wear masks is] totally disproportionate to any reasonable estimate of risk. Stop whipping up hysteria and anxieties. 

‘Stop singling out outdoor runners for no good scientific reason and instead focus on avoiding the actual high risk, indoor scenarios for transmission.’