First-person testimonial by George describing contracting COVID-19 in 2020 at age 22 while a final-year engineering student at the University of Sheffield and an active volleyball player. Although his acute COVID was very mild, he developed Long Covid symptoms (pronounced fatigue, brain fog, poor exercise tolerance) that severely limited walking, reading, chess, and daily plans. George enrolled in the Gupta Program around late autumn 2020 (approximately October), followed it diligently for about 3–5 months, and reports progressive recovery: reduced fatigue, clearer cognition, ability to walk in the Peak District, resume push-ups/training, read books, and play chess again.
Questions this video answers
In 2020.
22 years old.
University of Sheffield.
Around late autumn 2020 (approximately October 2020).
About three months, possibly four to five months (committed religiously for 3–5 months).
Chapters
My name is George and so I got unwell. I caught Covid in 2020. So at the time I was 22. It was my last year of university at Sheffield, studying engineering and I was generally like for a 22 year old, quite fit. So I play a lot of volleyball and I was training. My ambition at the time was to go on to play professionally and play Freeman. So I was playing four or five times a week and gyming about the same much while studying. So I was in pretty decent shape for a 22 year old. Generally the, the COVID was extremely mild. I think if there wasn't the fact that I knew it was covered, I wouldn't have really thought anything of it. To think I've got a cold, like a pretty average cold at that. Like really I can't stress enough how mild it was. So I very much just thought, okay, well that's fine, give it a week, I'm over now, feel pretty normal. So then I started to try. Okay, I can go back to, I've been resting for a week size, I'll go back to training, ease back into it. And that's when the symptoms of long Covid started to flare up though. Then go for a gentle run like around two miles, quite slowly and then came back, felt fine. Day or two afterwards, felt quite unwell. So the main symptoms for Long Covid for me were I felt the biggest one was fatigue that I generally just felt, felt wiped most of the time. I tend to describe it like I was hungover without the nausea. Then brain fog was another really big one. So I like to read a lot and I honestly couldn't read anything out. Like I had to read like a children's book would be the most sort of, yeah, challenging thing I could read anything with any substance was just beyond me. I just read the same page like five times. So the fatigue as well was quite challenging. It basically got worse and worse. I mean at its worst I was, I mean I could barely walk 500 meters and then I lucky I need to lie down now. It's horrendous because every time I tried to make plans I had to make it with the caveat I might feel dreadful on the day and have to bail. Or like, you know, I might have walked upstairs too many stairs too many times in the morning. Now I'm white and so I can't come. These little changes to a lifestyle sort of all add up and make you feel like nothing's quite normal anymore. We started the goods program about late autumn in 2020. So maybe October time and then we committed to it pretty religiously for, I mean certainly for three months, maybe four or five. And then still came back to it a little bit more after that, sort of tapping back in when you needed to. But we've gotten so much better by that point and then in terms of the benefits. So the big one was just. Well, I mean there's several. The general pattern obviously is just over time we're getting better and better. So physically we're starting to be able to first get fatigued less and less brain fog, more able to engage with things. I was living in Sheffield all the time, so going for a walk in the peak district became an option again. And then eventually after a while felt stage where okay, I'm ready to start trying to like train and so just do some push ups in, in the living room. When I started just to do strenuous physical exercise, like doing push ups again to actually feel like I'm training and getting stronger as opposed to just being on this downhill trajectory of my body feels like it's atrophing and I'm getting weaker and weaker. That was a huge one. I like playing chess. So when I was able to actually play chess again because it's very much like a mental focusing, it's kind of tiring burn calories doing it. To be able to do that again was huge because before again it was just could not focus on anything. Similarly with reading a book. Reading an actual book again was huge because I like to read. And again when I was at my worst I just. It was completely non started good six months where I couldn't read a book at all.
