Post-COVID Recovery Program

While many people have recovered from COVID-19 with no long-lasting symptoms, others have been affected by what’s known as Post-Acute COVID Syndrome (PACS). People with PACS continue to experience coronavirus symptoms well after the initial infection. Symptoms may include:

Fatigue
Joint and muscle pain
Weakness
Brain fog
Lightheadedness
Heart palpitations

If you’re a candidate for our PACS program, our experts will guide you through a three-phase protocol customized to your specific needs. Here’s what you can expect during each phase:

Phases 1-3

Phase 1

You will go through a supervised set of custom exercises. Throughout this phase, we look at your response to the activities using what's called a Rate of Perceived Exertion Scale (RPE).
We try to maintain a stable RPE, putting rest periods in place if it increases too quickly. The goal is to stabilize your symptoms.
You can also expect constant vitals monitoring in Phase 1. You'll not only be trained on self-monitoring but also energy pacing and breathing techniques. Fatigue - a major issue that PACS patients face - will also be tackled in this phase.

Phase 2

In Phase 2, you’ll progress to graded aerobic exercises. At this point, we’ll continue to focus on stabilizing symptoms and increasing aerobic load. We’ll also keep monitoring your vitals as well as any fatigue and exertion.
This phase typically lasts about eight weeks but could be longer depending on the your response to the exercises.

Phase 3

At this phase, our therapists start introducing graded submaximal aerobic training. We use peak exercise capacity and heart rate zone to measure your progress, with the goal of improving your overall aerobic capacity and strength.
While therapists may set individual benchmarks, you should be able to alternate aerobic training days with strength-training days by this point.

Our PACS program is available at any of our three outpatient locations. Contact our team nearest you for more details.

Andover Medical Center

323 Lowell St., Andover, MA 01810

978-946-8362

Andover/North Andover YMCA

165 Haverhill St., Andover, MA 01810
978-946-8387

Marston Medical Center

25 Marston St., Suite 106, Lawrence, MA 01841
978-683-4000, ext. 2061

Disclaimer: Recommendations and clinical applications in this program are not peer-reviewed but based on clinician discretion. As COVID-19 is an evolving condition, the program is subject to change as new evidence arises.