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Starting this Thursday, the use of masks will be mandatory for all those over 6 years old who go out into the streets, but as the ministerial order published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) collected this Wednesday, there is an exception: " It will not be necessary in the development of activities that, by their very nature, prevent their use. " Although the ambiguity of the terms prevents specifying which activities it refers to, one of them is physical exercise, whether professional or amateur, according to sources from the Higher Sports Council (CSD) to EL MUNDO and the Ministry of Health to EFE.

In this way, there will be no obligation to wear a mask to play sports, but as until now the recommendation will be maintained. "It will be a matter of individual responsibility," point out these sources, who point out that each one should value the place where they exercise, their intensity and their own abilities. Because, although there are few studies in this regard, they show a conclusion: running or cycling with a mask multiplies the requirement of training.

"It is difficult to extract data and establish a conclusion because, as we have found, there is a huge spectrum of variation depending on the type of mask and its fit. In all types, we also see that the entry of oxygen is reduced to a greater or lesser extent. We measure it with atmospheric pressure. Running with a surgical mask and with a normal adjustment at sea level would be like doing it without the mask at a height of about 400 meters, "explains Arturo Ariño , director of the Department of Environmental Biology at the University of Navarra, who has been conducting a study for several weeks with Jesús Miguel Santamaría , director of the Institute for Research in Biodiversity and the Environment.

Their objective is to determine the efficacy of most face masks on the market and they already carry about 550 experiments with about 150 different ones. "In any case, what can cause a sensation of suffocation to the athlete is the excess carbon dioxide that is generated. In that aspect it would also be very different to play sports with a surgical mask, which have a lot of air outlet around the edges that with an FFP2 mask, which have less air outlet ", specifies and points out that there are few 'papers' on the subject.

One of them is the one made by Stanford University a few months ago. The experiment investigated the effects caused by surgical masks to see if their prolonged use could be useful for acclimatization at altitude, as is already the case with hypoxia masks. The result was negative. "Exercising with a mask creates a hot and humid microclimate on your face, a mini-sauna," Grant Lipman , one of the people in charge, told The New York Times.

"Nasal segregation increases and that creates a feeling of continuous discomfort," Lipman concluded, adding that this sensation prevented exercising in conditions and, of course, sleeping the subjects of his study. Another expert, in fact, pointed out to the same newspaper that this discomfort generated by the masks during sports practice nullified their effect because they tended to touch them with their hands and a last one added that when humidified due to saliva and nasal secretions, the masks they may lose their effect.

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