One of the reasons is the high risk of adverse health effects that may occur after very intense exercise in people who are not necessarily sick but are not physically active [26,27]. Nonetheless, \(\text{HR}_{\text{max}}\) tests are performed, for example, in people struggling with obesity [28]. However, according to the standard protocol, such persons should be prepared for intense physical activity by implementing special physical activity programs several weeks prior to the actual measurement [29]. From a physiological point of view, an obese person with poor cardiometabolic parameters is not able to achieve such high \(\text{HR}_{\text{max}}\) values during physical exercise as a person with normal fat tissue content [30]. Hence, for the above reasons, some findings indicate that the \"\(200-0.48\times\text{age}\)\" equation, derived from a sample of obese adults, should be the first choice for training or rehabilitation centers at the time of predicting \(\text{HR}_{\text{max}}\) in adolescents with obesity [31]. University students represent a selected group with great social potential. Managerial staff have always come and will continue to come from the intelligentsia, and representatives of intellectuals belong to opinion-forming circles and can modulate social attitudes [32]. Motor fitness is absolutely one of the basic components of human health, and its relationship with the COVID-19 pandemic should be investigated in order to develop appropriate health-promoting programs for academic youth. It may be speculated that students who contracted COVID-19 have developed a set of features that are strongly negatively correlated with their motor skills [33] and that the nearly three-year-long pandemic has had a negative impact on their level of physical performance [34]. So far, there has been no record of scientific research addressing these issues. Moreover, taking into account the methodology of scientific research in the examined area, to the best of our knowledge,there has been no research harnessing the rowing ergometer to measure HRmax among physically inactive young adults with COVID-19. Physical inactivity refers to the lack of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in a person's lifestyle. It is distinct from sedentary behavior [35]. Investigations conducted in many countries [36; 37] and showing mediocre results in the physical activity and motor fitness of university students indicate that it is crucial to get their attention and build their awareness to at least maintain a satisfactory level of physical activity and motor fitness [38]. An overview of the literature has revealed a lack of research assessing HRmax values in male students. The potential relationships of this parameter with COVID-19 disease have not been investigated either. There are also very few published studies that have harnessed the rowing ergometer to assess HRmax among athletes, and those that exist focus mainly on rowers [39; 40]. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to examine the relationship between COVID-19, physical activity (PA), body composition, and physiological characteristics, with special attention paid to HRmax during peak effort in the 12-Minute Cooper Test on the Rowing Ergometer (12-MCTRE) performed by male university students.