Patients with post-Covid syndrome suffer muscle damage that cannot be fully be explained by inactivity, research led by scientists at Amsterdam’s Vrije Universiteit (VU) has found. The post-Covid and ME patients had suffered from energy dips that caused them to avoid exercising or spend long periods in bed, which has a degrading impact on the skeletal muscles. But the researchers, led by Rob Wüst, a movement scientist at the VU, found differences in the colour of the muscle fibres between the two groups, indicating that the post-Covid patients had a much lower oxygen capacity. “Many patients hear that they need to move more or that being less active is bad for them,” she said. Wüst said patients should still be encouraged to be more mobile to avoid damage to their muscles, skeletons and cardiovascular system caused by inactivity.