Jack Cox is the Owner and Head Coach of Northern Beaches Jiu-Jitsu Academy spending his time coaching and mentoring his classes, while also training himself. In his family of three, his wife and son first contracted COVID in early January with Jack developing symptoms a few days later.
The 44 year old first felt body aches, chills and came down with a fever the day prior to testing positive, and subsequently felt lethargic and had body sweats during his infectious period. However what he didn’t realise at the time, and what his fitness tracker picked up, was that his breathing had increased in the first 2-3 days of having COVID.
“My wife and son had Covid a week before I did, so I was expecting to have my turn soon, I began to feel flat, lethargic and started getting body aches & pains,” explains Jack. “My recovery score dropped and my respiratory rate elevated. It was a great indicator that my body was fighting an infection. A dip in recovery scores and a rise in respiratory rate of 2+ breaths per minute.“
Shortness of breath is a common symptom, but not everyone notices the feeling. Jack’s WHOOP band was able to show that his respiratory rate increased by two breaths per minute, making him aware of how his body was responding to the virus. His WHOOP was able to tell Jack that he needed to rest for longer periods in order for his body to cope and recover properly.
According to reserach, an increase in respiratory rate around the day of and days following symptom onset seems to be present for cases associated with Omicron, consistent with their previous research on other strains. Interestingly, they found that a unique aspect of Omicron is that it relates to a much larger percentage increase in respiratory rates in men when compared to women.
“I own and run a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy on a full-time basis and was straight back into teaching as soon as I tested negative, I have had to manage my physical output since returning and have only been training with high intensity on the days that I had green WHOOP recovery or when my respiratory rate was within its normal range,” adds Jack.
