Exercising with Asthma

mamafoofer · February 2011

I used to be able to do a lot of cardio, but my asthma has gotten worse and now even 5 minutes of cardio sends me into an attack. I do yoga a few times a week, and feel like it helps with strength but doesn't give the same calorie burn as aerobic exercise. Does anyone out here have asthama and are you able to still work out? I'm looking for some ideas or suggestions for either aerobic exercises that I can do with asthma, or tricks that asthmatics have for exercising.

Thanks!

rubyrider · February 2011

I have lived with exercise induced asthma most of my life. I have an albutoral inhaler which I use to pretreat before exercise (usually 10-15 minutes before). It has not stopped my - I have run 4 1/2 marathons, am training for my 5th, I ride my bike almost daily, doing between 20-100 miles, I snow ski, I do a lot of other things. Talk to your doctor about it... there are things that CAN be done! Good luck.

Kityngirl · February 2011

I'm not sure how bad yours is but I walk on a treadmill and slowly build up speed keeping a close eye on my breathing. If I know I'm going to push myself harder then I use my inhaler before my workout to try to prevent an attack (Doc told me to do this). I've found that I can go a little harder and a little longer each week if I stick with it. I'm going to try a running program this Spring, I started one last year and made it up to almost 20 minutes of straight running on the treadmill. I gave up when I tried to start running outside and couldn't do it. I'm going to start the program outside this year, I just have to take it a lot slower than normal people and keep a close watch on my breathing. :flowerforyou:

koosdel · February 2011

One of the girls I row with drinks coffers while were out. She says it helps her.

This subject should really be discussed with a doctor.

taso42_DELETED · February 2011

I have asthma. When I was first getting into exercise it was a real challenge. Do you have an Albuterol inhaler (i.e., Ventolin)? If you are not doing so already, take 2 puffs about 20-30 minutes before cardio. That should help you last much longer before getting symptoms. I think the 20-30 minutes is key, in order to let it "kick in".

Also, go to your doc and look into some of the newer preventative treatments. I got an Asmanex inhaler a few years back which you just take once every night and it virtually made asthma disappear for me. It was literally life changing.

There are lots of athletes with asthma. Don't let it discourage you. Kick its *kitten*.

brandis72 · February 2011

I agree, I use my inhaler 20 minutes before I go out or I literally cough my way through the run. I am also going to see the dr and ask about singular. I've heard it helps to keep your airways open all day.

bgagn085 · February 2011

Hello, I have also had asthma my whole life and I completely understand what you are going through. When your asthma is uncontrolled (ie. untreated) it can seem IMPOSSIBLE to do cardio. There are ways to manage asthma, so I suggest talking to your doctor and find some sort of treatment that will work for you.

I urge you to take care of this because when I was younger my asthma was uncontrolled and pushed myself to tough through it when excercising. Because my asthma was so uncontrolled I ended up getting really sick and it permenantly worsened my asthma. It got so bad that I couldnt even go up stairs without getting out of breath. It took me two years if doctors visits and trying various types of medications to find a treatment that worked for me. It took a long time, and many years of consistently taking my medicine, but now that my asthma is finally controlled it has made a huge difference for me when I exercise.

Please learn from my mistake and take care of your body! There are ways of managing your asthma so you can do cardio!

McDougal416 · February 2011

I'm struggling w/the same thing. I'm running on a treadmill, and I figured out that I was just pushing myself too hard too fast. You just have to take things EXTREMLY slow until you can get your lungs strengthened up. It takes a while!!! Not sure what kind of cardio you are doing, but w/me and running..I started out at running/jogging at 5 and would run for 1 min and rest for 2 min's (walking at 3mph)..I'm now up to running/jogging at a 6 walking for 2 min's running for 2 min's. And able to accomplish that for 30 min's. It has taken me months to get up to this speed and distance. But, I just, literally, figured out I was pushing myself more than what my body was wanting me to. I was trying to run at 7 (this last time I started working out hard)..but once I went down to 6 I felt so much better! But, whatever you do..keep that same thing going for a week..then add to it starting the next week and hold that for a week and see how you do. Something that I haven't tried, but my specialists had told me to try a couple of yrs ago is to take my inhaler 30 min's before excersising to see if that would help. It did, but didn't help....so you could try that. I hope this helped some.... Good Luck! And know that its going to take a while to build up your lungs..just try not to push yourself...and I'm going to do cardio only 3 or 4x a week and see if that helps me any also..that way I'm giving my body a chance to recoup also...but I'm not doing anything on the other days..I am still walking for 20-30 min's to get my lungs working some too!

mamafoofer · February 2011

Thanks for the responses everyone! I guess that I should have said that I do have an albuterol inhaler for emergencies and have tried many different preventative medications like Singulair and Advair, but I have very bad side effects from almost everything we have tried. I do find the yoga helps with my breathing, and I can limit the severity of an attack (sometimes) but I still have so much difficulty with cardio. I do the treadmill but just don't feel like I get anything out of it (walking on an incline), I love cardio classes but just can't get through them, even with taking the albuterol before. I guess the key is just pace myself and take things slowly. All of the runners on here with astham, you are my heroes! I used to love to run when I was younger, but tried to do it a few months ago and thought I was going to die,lol.

Exercising with Asthma

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