Asthma and Exercise

I get what the Dr's call 'exercise-induced asthma'. A few minutes into my workout's, I start to feel the shortness of breath you mention. What works for me is to slow down a bit to reduce the intensity, make sure I can breath okay, then gradually build back up.

Working out in cold weather can bring on an attack as well.

Be careful with this, asthma attacks can be deadly.

Agree with MariaBabe.. a spacer is a wonderful tool. I am a Respiratory therapist and have mild asthma myself. Even I get a better dose using a spacer. I don't know if you drink coffee or hot tea, but both have some broncho-dilatory effect. I can definitely go longer if I've had a cup of hot tea or coffee, about 20 minutes before and your inhaler at least 30 minutes before for the full effectiveness. I didn't see a daily anti-histamine in your maintenance meds, seeing as you have pets and are known to be allergic, you should ask your MD about one, it would reduce your problems related to dander. I don't know if you let the animals in your room and bed( I do Mine ) if you do also put a purifier in your bedroom.

If you're not already, you should be taking your steroidal (preventer) everyday, it may have even been prescribed for more than once daily. The other one (salbutamol and such like) should theoretically then only be taken when you have an attack. I've found that gradually increasing the intensity/speed of whatever activity I'm doing helps reduce the number of attacks. Hope this helps.

I have this problem too. Some days it's worse than other days. I use Advair and Albuterol, but I am not always consistent with my Advair and this does affect things. I've noticed that when I'm consistent with my Advair and use my Albuterol about half an hour before I exercise that I have good results. I have three cats and I am allergic to them, and I keep my living space as spotless as possible. If I go too long without changing filters or vaccuuming my asthma flares up in general, and particularly when exercising. Also I live in the Phoenix metro area so while I don't have much cold air to contend with, we do have a lot of dusty and stagnant air here. I don't tend to notice it too much, but on the occasion it rains my breathing feels much better for a few days before it craps out again.

I hate that feeling, like you're sucking air through a straw with someone sitting on your chest. I used to smoke too and that certainly didn't help matters. I started working out regularly (crossfit usually four times per week) in September, and I went from having to use my emergency inhaler multiple times per workout to using it much less. Typically I use it once per workout on average. So sometimes twice, but sometimes not at all. I think that sticking with the workouts, in addition to being more consistent with cleaning, taking fish oil supplements, avoiding smokers and polluted air in general (I quit last June) has finally led me to a point where, in most workouts, my body fails before my lungs do, and I'm satisfyingly out of breath as opposed to asthmatic sucking air. The biggest challenge for me regarding asthma is running... I can run 800 meters now without stopping, I could barely shuffle half that just a few months ago But regardless of whether it's 200 meters or 800 meters, I have to be careful with my speed because if I run too fast my asthma kicks in and ruins the rest of the workout. I do honestly feel that the best thing I have done for my cardio system is crossfit, and doing it regularly. I know that exercise and weightloss alone won't cure my asthma, but it's helping significantly.

Interesting note - I went to a party this weekend and was around a lot of people smoking. I didn't smoke anything myself but I was certainly exposed to it secondhand for some long-ish periods of time. I went in for my workout yesterday, and after running the standard 400 meter warmup I was toast for the rest of the workout. My asthma was so bad I could barely load my barbell for squats. I had to move really slow and focus on recovery and not push myself too hard. It was really frustrating, it almost felt like my first day all over again. I did recover by the end of the workout but only because I only pushed as hard as I could without risking a trip to the ER, and my performance was much lower. The only thing that I could think about that changed from last Friday to Monday was being around so much smoke this weekend. Hopefully today will go better.

Today I am trying CrossFit and I've never been so nervous about anything in my whole life.

You will love it! It will be awesome. It's like gym class but for adults, way more hardcore and you can actually hurt yourself But that is of course part of the fun (though do try to be careful). The coaches will help you scale the workouts, so don't worry. You do your best, no more, no less, and you get better every time you go. As odd as it might sound, going to crossfit is the highlight of my day. Like I actually get excited about it and look forward to it and I feel sad on my rest days or if I have to miss it for some other reason.

I have heard mixed opinions on it but thank you for being supportive! I love to hear positive things and its great to hear from someone with asthma who is doing it as well. Makes me feel so much better about it!

February of this year, I had an asthma episode that was really bad for a few days then one day i just couldn't take it anymore. I had to go to the hospital, I was there for half of the day i got that vapor thing and some pills to treat my asthma. I couldn't go to the gym for two weeks but i did go it was a mistake. I had an asthma attack during my workout on the day I returned and my future workouts after that, I can remember just sitting down and looking myself at the mirror, watching myself catch my breathe and saying how can i stop this from happening again and not let my asthma control me but me control it.

So i lost all my strength ,endurance, power , ect pretty much everything that I worked for a few years just completely gone ... I changed my diet i stopped eating all dairy, bread, processed foods and ate more veggies and fruits it did wonders for me these foods are very alkalizing it was hard and slow for me at the start but when i kept at it. I started to feel better and better my asthma symptoms were slowly going away. I stopped using my inhaler after two months because, i hate using that thing. I'd get so weak after taking it, Now I can workout like everyone else, I'm stronger then ever. I have no worries of asthma attacks at all. I'm just a regular guy, It really is all in the mind stop thinking it can prevent you from doing anything and once you do, you can do anything you want to achieve!