We’ve mentioned before that staying fit and improving your wellbeing by eating a balanced diet and exercising is vital for maintaining your health. If you’ve decided to make a commitment to you and your health in 2019, then that’s an excellent start – and now you’re ready to take the next step.

But if you have a lung condition it might not be as simple as that. Your individual circumstances, specific condition and current ability will all need to be considered before you can embark on any form of exercise.

 

Why should you bother with exercise?

Think of physical fitness as being similar to fine tuning an engine. Regularly maintaining your health and wellbeing means your body is able to function at its full potential. It’s understandable that if some time has lapsed since you’ve taken on any physical activity, you may feel frightened of exercising because you find your symptoms worsen when you do.

The fact is when you have a lung condition it’s even more important to maintain a good level of physical activity. In most cases you will find increasing your fitness and strengthening your muscles improves your symptoms and enables you to start doing more.

Taking on regular exercise will help you

  • better control your shortness of breath
  • increase your strength and your tolerance to effort
  • better control any anxiety you may have
  • increase your confidence in your own abilities
  • improve your quality of life

Remember before you even embark on any exercise that it’s really important to be patient. Don’t aim too high right at the start and take on too much before you’re body is physically able to handle it.

How can your respiratory physiotherapist help you?

Working with a respiratory physiotherapist who will create an exercise programme that is devised entirely for you – your own circumstances, your own condition and your own goals – means you get peace of mind that what you’re doing is safe and right for you.

During supervised sessions your oxygen levels, heart rate, breathing rate and breathing pattern will all be monitored and you can be reassured that you’ll be in good hands so that you know how much to push yourself and when to rest. As you become more confident with this, many people feel able to start increasing their activity levels outside of supervised sessions.

What kind of activities are an option?
Finding something that keeps you committed and works for you is top of the list. We frequently set up personalised programmes for our clients to complete at home via a handy app, which keeps them on track with their goals.
You will be guided through this during your session but once you’re at home you will be able to access your plan on your phone, tablet or computer. You will be able to access videos and descriptions of each of your exercises and can then tick them off as they’re completed. Your therapist will be able to keep an eye on your progress via the app and you can ask them questions via the chat facility whenever you need to! We think one of the main benefits of this tool is that is keeps our clients accountable and motivated!