Danilo Marcelo Leite do Prado et al. Valmir Oliveira Silvino Ewerton Gomes Vieira Bruno Viana Rosa … Acácio Salvador Veras e Silva Marcos Antonio Pereira dos Santos
Introduction
The advent of the Coronavirus 19 (COVID-19) pandemic, which has quickly spread worldwide, has raised the attention regarding the use of respiratory protective face masks (PFM) not only by healthcare personnel, but also the general population. In this context, wearing a PFM during physical exercise in an external environment can reduce COVID-19 infection risks. On the other hand, the use of PFM can increase the subjective perception of breathing difficulty through the formation of microclimates inside the face mask (i.e., temperature and humidity) and airflow restriction.
In recent years, the number of amateur runners has significantly increased among many populations around the world, as running can be performed with minimal equipment, and by a broad variety of people. Interestingly, during endurance exercise, the adaptability of the cardiorespiratory system is of paramount importance, as it increases both convective and diffusive oxygen transport, thus enabling the body to meet the demands for oxygen, substrate delivery, and carbon dioxide removal. Moreover, the so-called physiological markers of endurance performance, such as ventilatory anaerobic threshold, respiratory compensation point, running economy, and maximal oxygen uptake, also seem to be important in determining absolute exercise intensity (i.e., pace, power output).
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