Wearing face mask during exercise is safe, says study By Reuters Share World - A new research by European Respiratory Journal claims that wearing a face mask during an intense workout is safe for healthy people and could reduce the risk of Covid-19 spreading at indoor gyms. For the study, researchers carried out detailed testing on breathing, heart activity, and exercise performance in a group of 12 people while they were using an exercise bike with and without a mask. Although they found differences in some measurements between wearing a mask and not wearing a mask, the researchers noted that none of their results indicated any risk to health.