Effects of 12 Weeks Whole Body Vibration Training on Long Covid Syndrome Symptoms – A Single Case Study
Keywords:
Long Covid, Exercise therapy, Whole body vibration, RehabilitationAbstract
Background: More than 760 million people have been infected with COVID-19. Many of them have not yet recovered, although symptoms such as cough or fever have disappeared. They suffer from fatigue, depression, attention deficits and reduced motor performance. Exercise therapy has been well studied in various diseases that have similar symptoms, including Whole Body Vibration. Therefore, this study investigates an exercise intervention using Whole Body Vibration as a gentle therapeutic alternative to medication.
Materials and Methods: A 42-year-old female Long Covid patient underwent a training intervention on a vibration platform (12 weeks, 2 x/week 30 min, each set lasting 60 s with a rest between sets of 60 s). Investigated were depression (BDI-II), fatigue (FAS), attention (d2-test), and motor fitness before and after the intervention.
Results: Improvements in depression, fatigue and attention are visible as well as improvements in motor fitness parameters.
Conclusions: Whole body vibration seems to be a good alternative to improve Long Covid syndrome symptoms. For this, a pilot study should follow, comparing Whole Body Vibration vs. conventional training therapy vs. a control group. Such a study is on planning.
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