Isn't that a pretty good improvement? I was really happy when I went from 1 rep at 90% of my max to 3 reps. It took me a fairly long time and this was before COVID.
Or perhaps I use a different definition of stamina? Regardless, the fact that there was an improvement shows that it can get better?
Keep at it. If you've got the resources, a good PT might be able to help. Not one of those grifters that did a 3 week course, but someone with an actual understanding of sports science.
I somewhat agree though, albeit with a sense of resignation rather than reassurance, that some improvement offers some hope that continuing will yield further improvement.
PT is out of the question for now given the financials. We'll see in the future.
Thanks for trying to encourage me though.
- Measure Vo2 max, and try to improve it monitoring it, there are some things that just work better for vo2 max, like HIT, and specific protocol of max intensity and rest, for example 4 min intensity followed by 4 rest, 4 times is one of them. Better explained at this Rhonda Patrick's video [1]
- Additionally I notice a big improvement when doing hikes in high altitude, I did vomit few hours after coming down from Teide mountain, hiked from tele-spheric station up to 3200mts. I think I over did it for my fitness level, and didn't protect from sun properly, but after recovering I could feel a big improvement in my usual walks, and Apple Watch showed and increment of Vo2 bigger than usual.
- Also this is more specific, and probably does not apply to you, but check your hormones. Because lack of sleep and stress, I had ACTH, Estradiol, Prolactin and Homa-IR out of whack, was nearly developing type 2 diabetes, fixing this made losing weight so much easier, and gym sessions way less tiring.
I guess what I'm trying to say to the commenter, is that it would be useful to measure those things (assuming they didn't) before thinking it falls into the category of those people in the study. The markers I mentioned are very easy to obtain, at least VO2max, and both cases can be reverted if the right specific type of training/intervention.
I went from 30 to 38,7 Vo2 max in 10 months but I could only do it after fixing hormones, before training wasn't effective for me, and I even tried 20K steps day, without success. After hormones fixed, just 15k steps/day would increase slowly but steady my VO2 max.
It may be that covid does unique physiological damage, but it could also be that most severe sicknesses do some sort of permanent damage.
I wonder how much of this is unique to covid, is my point.
Likewise, PDE5 inhibitors and presumably other med classes seem capable of nearly reversing mild-to-moderate nerve damage through local NGF release secondary to improved endothelial function and nerve blood supply.