Navicent Health gives tips on exercising with masks

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — With many Middle Georgia gym’s reopened, clients are making their way back to the treadmill with more than just a water bottle.

Some gyms are requiring masks while others aren’t.

Catalina Torres Lopez — exercise physiologist at Navicent Health — says during the pandemic, you should work out with or without a mask.

Lopez says if you do wear a mask while at the gym, start off slow. She advises not to push yourself as you normally would. 

Lopez says to allow the body to adapt to the restriction of airflow that you will get from wearing the face-covering.

“The little bit of oxygen that is being reduced is also not going to your skeletal muscles and your muscles use the oxygen to produce ATP which is energy,” Lopez said.

Lopez says the body needs the energy to maintain the exercise intensity.

However, she says if you feel dizzy, light-headed, or have a shortness of breath with a mask on — call it quits.