Asthma And Aerobic Exercise

The type of aerobic exercise you choose depends on your level of physical fitness, personality, and asthma severity. If you've been a dedicated couch potato, start by walking for thirty minutes every day. You can walk in your neighborhood, the mall, or the woods. Where you walk depends on where you live and how comfortable you are with walking. If you're in good shape and otherwise healthy, you can walk anywhere. If you have several medical conditions and haven't walked by yourself for some time, walk where other people are present, like the mall. After two weeks of daily walking, increase your walk to an hour every day. As the weeks pass, increase the pace of your walk and include some hills for extra exercise. To make sure you're getting a good workout, you should be breathing a little harder and faster than normal, but not running out of breath or having to stop and rest.

 

Also, remember to stay hydrated during exercise. If you're exercising correctly, chances are you've worked up a sweat. Replacing water lost during exercise is especially important for asthmatics to prevent heat exhaustion and dehydration. Dehydration poses unique dangers for asthmatics, because the less water you have in your body, the thicker the mucus in your lungs. Thick mucus is one of the characteristics of an asthma attack. There is also evidence that dehydration may cause edema and bron-choconstriction in the lungs.

 

The best replacement fluid is good old-fashioned water. Those expensive "sports" drinks can actually promote dehydration by shifting water to your stomach to digest their sweeteners and electrolytes. What can happen is that you become increasingly dehydrated as your stomach tries to dilute the concentrated drink. For an asthmatic who is exercising, this fluid shift can rob the lungs of precious water that is needed to keep bronchial secretions thin. So, during exercise, take frequent but small sips of water to stay hydrated. Salt and electrolyte replacement is usually only needed by heavily perspiring athletes.

 

After a couple of months of dedicated walking, try biking, swimming, or joining an aerobics class. Once again, the type of activity you choose depends on your fitness level, personality, and where you live. If you live in a large city, biking may not be a realistic option; you might consider joining a gym, where you can swim or take an aerobics class. Gyms are also useful during air-quality alert days, when it may be dangerous for an asthmatic to exercise outdoors. Aerobics classes come in all shapes and sizes, so you should have no problem finding a class right for you. Since swimming, biking, and aerobics tend to be more intense than walking, you won't have to do them as often to stay in shape; 30-45 minutes every other day should be adequate.

 

With aerobic exercise, try to mix things up. If you perform the same exercise every day, your body will adapt and you won't get an effective workout. So, run one day, pound the stair-climbing machine the next, rest one day, then bike the next day—cross-training is great for your body.

 

With exercise, your mantra should be "Go slow and work my way up." For moderate-level aerobic exercise, you want to be breathing a little faster than you would while walking. Don't be embarrassed to rest if you need to, as it's better to gradually develop aerobic strength rather than overwork and potentially injure your body. My aversion to counting calories spills over into calculating heart rates. There are formulas for calculating target aerobic heart rate, which for most people are unnecessary. When exercising, pay attention to what your body tells you. You know you're getting a good workout if you're breathing fast but can still carry on a conversation. If you can't catch your breath or complete a sentence, you're exercising too hard and need to slow down. Unless you're in excellent, competitive-level shape, leave the heart-pounding, body-bashing stuff to the athletes.

 

For asthmatics who want to stay fit and do not intend to engage in high-intensity sports, I recommend sticking to moderate aerobic exercise. Moderate-level aerobic exercise offers similar health benefits as high-intensity aerobics without the risk of injury. If you begin to experience asthma symptoms while exercising, it's important to stop exercising immediately and treat the symptoms. Some asthmatics try to exercise through an asthma attack, a potentially dangerous practice that can lead to serious trouble.