Pull up, push up, mask up: how do masks affect us during exercise?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-07-01 01:00

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Most of us across the country are being asked to wear a mask while outside the home, and US researchers have been figuring out if they are affecting us while exercising. They say that, in their small experiment of 20 apparently healthy adults, both cloth and N95 masks mildly hindered our oxygen intake when performing an exercise stress test, compared with no mask at all. Additionally, the participants' heart rates didn't reach the same peaks as they did without the masks. The team do stress that the participants had peak exercise values that generally remained within normal limits, and nobody had to stop the tests because they were low on air, or any other clinical safety concerns. The team says that while a mask could cause a slight limitation to physical exertion, the actual effect of it is not clinically significant.

Media release

From: JAMA

What The Study Did: This crossover trial found that perceived breathing resistance at peak exercise is uniquely and significantly elevated when exercise stress testing (EST) is performed while wearing a mask. Performing EST with a mask yielded lower peak exercise oxygen uptake and heart rates as compared with no mask. However, each experimental condition resulted in peak exercise values that generally remained within normal limits, and no EST required termination due to clinically indicated safety concerns. Thus, although it is possible that wearing a mask exerted a physical limitation on exercise capacity, the clinical relevance of such a possibility is not supported by these data.

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Research JAMA, Web page

Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Cleveland Clinic, USA

Funder: Funding support was provided by Joseph Parambil and The Brentwood Foundation solely to cover the cost of purchasing the masks used in this study.

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