Pear Team Tri Blogs: Esme Soan - From COVID to Triathlon
Esme Soan is our Principal Women's Health Accredited Exercise Physiologists and Director here at Pear.
Esme is passionate about working with women, helping improve the care that women receive through pregnancy, early postpartum, in rehabilitation after cancer and in chronic pain management.
Esme opened Pear Exercise Physiology in 2014 to provide specialist exercise physiology services in women’s health in Brisbane. She has now grown her vision to include multidisciplinary services to further support Brisbane women with their health goals.
After all the worry and times of extreme caution over the last 2 years, I tested positive for dreaded COVID-19 in early January. Mostly I was just frustrated at being quarantined / stuck at home for a week - I really only had a couple of days of symptoms with a sore throat, some headaches and fever.
At this stage the recommendations for return to exercise and activity during COVID infection were really not clear - and I was going stir crazy, so I completed a couple apartment block walks inside our courtyard and some youtube pilates in my bedroom!
What happened after my quarantine week, was that my fatigue got A-LOT worse. I had worked with plenty of clients who had fatigue (post cancer fatigue, or post-exertional malaise) - but never experienced true fatigue myself. My limbs felt extra heavy, my brain extra foggy, and I just felt like I was moving through a swamp. Most of my down time was spent horizontal. I even had to have a nap after a shower. I had such a tough time, I wasn’t even able to work a full shift at Pear.
My mind went to - oh no, have I got long COVID? Did I do the wrong thing to exercise during my infectious period? Will I be able to still work as an exercise physiologist & run a business? PANIC!
Main barriers to exercise
So I was dealing with some significant fatigue, headaches, brain fog and bruised ego. My knowledge of working with fatigue told me I needed to better pace my return to activity (including all of my activities of daily living - things like showering/cooking/groceries), work (which can be very physical with spotting weights, demonstrating classes and exercises - to sedentary work on my laptop) and then exercise (running, swimming, bike riding, pilates and weight training).
What got us here
Luckily I touched base the Pear EP team, who helped to get my ego in check, and helped pace my return not just to work, but back to exercise as well! I only just got back to pre-covid levels of training, (chuck a month off on holiday in there which also helped to slow me down a little!) but now I feel I am able to recover within a 12 hour period - rather then booming & busting in energy all over the place - and complete all the work tasks I have in the week! My energy spent on exercise is being returned to me with interest in the fatigue management analogy - rather than bankrupting me. I have now been able to return to my usual level of training (1-2 x swim, 1-2 x runs and strength training with reformer pilates classes and some gym sessions!) and have been feeling good! Ready for the next step - to amp up from rehab to performance!
Now I am looking forward to the next steps, joining the Pear team for some more specific triathlon training!