Asthma Friendly Springtime Exercises

If you’ve ever had an asthma attack, you know just how traumatic and scary it can be. The threat of an asthma attack can deter people (who have asthma) from things like exercise but it shouldn’t. Everyone can and should enjoy the benefits of exercise, including people with asthma. You must remember that if you have asthma, gaining weight and leading a sedentary life is dangerous for your overall health and can make asthma worse.

In order to develop a good exercise regimen, people with asthma just have to take some extra precautions. Make sure that your doctor knows what you are doing and gives you the “go ahead”. Also, make sure that you’ve got a pretty good handle on your asthma symptoms. Your doctor should be able to give you tips if you have an attack as well. She may also give you a pre-exercise inhaler.

Check out this list of fun, asthma-friendly, springtime exercises:

The exercises that are the easiest on your lungs will probably be yoga, hiking, walking, canoeing, sailing, fishing, and biking. I know that some of those wouldn’t be considered “exercise” but outdoor activities, in general, force you to exert more energy than just sitting inside watching TV.

If you’re looking for an activity to do with others (like a sport), try to focus on activities that have you doing short, intermittent periods of activity at a time: volleyball, baseball, wrestling, gymnastics, etc.
The best exercise by far is swimming. The moist (normally warm) air is great for your lungs. Make sure to pay attention to what your body is trying to tell you. Don’t overexert your lungs.

Exercising indoors is normally best but everyone should be able to enjoy some fresh air. Try to exercise outdoors if it isn’t too cold. Do warm-up and cool-down exercises to help ease the transition for your lungs. If you have bad allergies as well, I would forgo outdoor exercises during allergy season (when the pollen count is high and when the air pollution levels are high).

Image by Tommy Wong (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Girl_with_styrofoam_swimming_board.jpg)