Impact of wearing a surgical and cloth mask during cycle exercise

We sought to determine the impact of wearing cloth or surgical masks on the cardiopulmonary responses to moderate-intensity exercise. Twelve subjects (n = 5 females) completed three, 8-min cycling trials while breathing through a non-rebreathing valve (laboratory control), cloth, or surgical mask. Heart rate (HR), oxyhemoglobin saturation (SpO(2)), breathing frequency, mouth pressure, partial pressure of end-tidal carbon dioxide (PetCO(2)) and oxygen (PetO(2)), dyspnea were measured throughout exercise. A subset of n = 6 subjects completed an additional exercise bout without a mask (ecological control). There were no differences in breathing frequency, HR or SpO(2) across conditions (all p > 0.05). Compared with the laboratory control (4.760.9 cmH(2)O [mean +/- SD]), mouth pressure swings were smaller with the surgical mask (0.960.7; p < 0.0001), but similar with the cloth mask (3.664.8 cmH(2)O; p = 0.66). Wearing a cloth mask decreased PetO(2) (-3.563.7 mm Hg) and increased PetCO(2) (+2.061.3 mm Hg) relative to the ecological control (both p < 0.05). There were no differences in end-tidal gases between mask conditions and laboratory control (both p > 0.05). Dyspnea was similar between the control conditions and the surgical mask (p > 0.05) but was greater with the cloth mask compared with laboratory (+0.961.2) and ecological (+1.561.3) control conditions (both p < 0.05). Wearing a mask during short-term moderate-intensity exercise may increase dyspnea but has minimal impact on the cardiopulmonary response.