Impact of surgical face masks on exercise performance : effects of wearing surgical face masks on cardiorespiratory performance at intensities below and above the ventilatory threshold

• Autor(a) principal: Jesus, João Pedro Mendes de
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/26501
• topic: Capacity; Exercise; Fatigue; Ventilation; Ventilatory threshold; Capacidade; Exercício; Fadiga; Limiar ventilatório; Ventilação; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais

Wearing facial masks has become part of our daily routine due to the recommendation of its use to prevent the spread the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). Despite its use by healthy individuals does not affect performance in response to most daily tasks, this may not be the case during intense physical exercise. For this reason, we sought to examine the impact of wearing surgical face masks on performance during cycle-ergometry performed at intensity below and above the ventilatory threshold (VT). Sixteen men and sixteen women (ages: 24 ± 3.3 years) completed a maximal graded exercise test on a cycle ergometer to determine peak oxygen uptake and VT. Subsequently, on different days, all participants performed standardized protocols on a cycle ergometer (moderate intensity: 25% below VT; severe intensity: 25% above VT) in two different conditions (with and without a surgical face mask). Mask usage reduced oxygen uptake and minute ventilation in response to moderate and severe exercise (p < 0.0001), having a greater influence on the severe intensity. Time to exhaustion was also reduced by ~10% during severe exercise performed with a surgical face mask (p = 0.014). In contrast, heart rate and the respiratory exchange ratio remained unaffected by the mask condition. Finally, when comparing mean oxygen uptake obtained from 3 to 6 min vs. 7 to 10 min of moderate exercise, we found that wearing a surgical face mask did not affect the achievement of steady-state. Thus, taken together, we conclude that masking interferes with motor performance, reducing oxygen uptake during moderate and severe exercise. In addition, our data also indicate that the magnitude of interference is greater at higher exercise intensity. Ultimately, this may implicate a considerable impairment of structured or even unstructured strenuous physical activity.