Exercising with a face mask on ‘could prove fatal’, an expert has warned. Lindsay Bottoms, a reader in Exercise and Health Physiology at the University of Hertfordshire, claims that a mask makes it harder to inhale the quantity of air needed while exercising.
Writing for The Conversation, she explained: “When we do heavy exercise, our muscles produce lactic acid, which causes that burning sensation.
It is then converted to carbon dioxide and exhaled. “But what happens if the carbon dioxide is trapped by the mask? As you move from moderate to heavy exercise, you may be re-breathing carbon dioxide, which can reduce cognitive function and increase breathing rate. “There may also be less oxygen in the recycled air, which could imitate