Help...Out of breath when excersising

Yes. Keep doing it, that's about your only option. Get on a beginner running program maybe if you want some structure?

Keep pushing yourself. you'll get there! After I quit smoking it took me months on the elliptical to even begin to see the difference. I didn't start running until last yer, now here I am a bonifide runner, 5k, 10k and sprint triathlon competitor

Slow down and then slow down some more. If you need to stick to just walking for a while, then start adding short slow running intervals (start with 30 sec to 1 min) and very gradually build up. It takes your body a long time to recover from smoking, be patient (but don`t give up)

Concentrate on your breathing. Inhale through your nose and exhale out through you mouth. This has always helped me. It helps regulate your heart rate. Which will help you feel, less like dying.

Whenever I'm running and start to breathe heavy, its cause I know I'm not breathing right and therefore hyperventilate. Making it painful to continue running.

lucky078 wrote: »

Hi there, I am fairly new to this... I have just been out for a small jog, but found I couldnt manage even 90 seconds of jogging due to my breathing.

What everyone else has been saying - just persevere. Don't try to run super fast. These first weeks are going to be the hardest but trust all of us who have been there, done that, your aerobic capability and cardiopulmonary system will improve and in time you'll be putting in longer and longer times between walk or rest breaks.

I also second the notion of adopting a run-walk-run program like the C25K (google it). Anyone, and I really mean anyone, without serious underlying health issues should be able to tackle C25K and complete it.

While you might not be able to manage this right now (but in short order... yes you will!), your goal for your runs should be to run at a pace where you could hold something of a conversation out loud with someone without wheezing. If you don't have a partner just talk out loud to yourself for a bit to test. This technique helps limit the pace at which you run. Most people make the mistake of running too fast. It isn't necessary or even ideal to push your pace all the time.

Mike

make sure you drink plenty of water during the day... I find that if I don't drink enough I find it hard to draw air into my lungs when I exercise ( non smoker, no asthma)

I tend to get out of breath easily as well (had asthma all my childhood...) and what really helped me was paying attention to breathing out at least 3 times as long as breathing in, which can be incorporated really well into the step rhythm while running. And also I had to convince myself not to be self-conscious about my breathing, it's really nobody's business if I get out of breath while exercising

That's the spirit!

Where I live there is a chine that goes down to the beach. It's quite a gradient but has a couple of areas where things level off a little so it really is like a little interval climb. It probably takes only 2 minutes to climb to the top but...boy...when I was a smoker and before I started seriously exercising again I used to be a complete mess at the top!
Unable to speak.
Couldn't catch my breath.
Heart going like the clappers.
Drooling like an old hound...ewww!

Three months after quitting smoking and taking up cardio and other healthy things I realised, much to my delight, that I could tackle that hill without collapsing at the top!

And it got better and better.

Now I can walk up it talking to my husband as if we were strolling along the pavement, the difference is incredible.

Have fun as well lucky078.

Just some additional information: Smoking affects your lungs and unless you have COPD those effects are reversable in a fairly short time after you quit.

For running, unless you have COPD, lung function isn't the limiting factor anyway. cardiovascular fitness is mainly improved by increased heart stroke volume, increased blood volume, increased vascularity in the legs, increased mitocondria size and quantity in the legs' muscle cells, and increased aerobic enzymes in the muscle cells.

Unless you have COPD your lungs can deliver plenty of oxygen. However, your body must develop both the capacity to deliver that oxygen to the working muscles in quantity and for the muscles to fully use the oxygen for energy conversion.