Exercise is an important component of a healthy lifestyle. Regular exercise helps to manage many conditions and control weight. However, there is a condition called exercise induced asthma (EIA) during which your airways narrow in response to exercise. This can happen if you have asthma when you are not exercising and in some cases, it happens only while working out. You can take many steps to manage this condition. One of these steps is to learn some simple breathing techniques.
Nasal Breathing
According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, if you have exercise induced asthma it may be helpful to learn to breathe through your nose instead of your mouth. Breathing through the nose is more physiologically relaxing for the body. You take in less air and your nasal passage is especially designed to warm and clean the air you inhale. Before you try this method while exercising, practice. Inhale and exhale slowly through the nose only. At first, you may find that you get dizzy. If this happens, take a few deep breaths though your mouth and then switch back to nasal breathing. As this style of breathing gets more comfortable, try incorporating it while you exercise.
Mindful Breathing
Learning to breathe mindfully as is taught in yoga, will help your body to relax. The University of New Mexico states that people with exercise induced asthma may enhance relaxation and exercise tolerance by developing a yoga practice. Feeling like you can not breathe when in an asthma attack can be very stressful, and stress can make your situation worse. Learning to calm the body through breathing may help. Inhale through your nose as the abdomen expands. Then exhale through the nose as the abdomen moves relaxes. Keep your attention 100 percent on your breath. If distracting thoughts enter the mind, bring your attention back to your breath. Try to do this practice for fifteen minutes each day. As you get more comfortable with this technique, you can do mindful breathing to help calm your body if you feel an EIA attack coming on.
Breathing to Strengthen The Respiratory Muscles
To help manage your symptoms, strengthen your respiratory muscles. You can strengthen these muscles with weights or resistance just like you do with any other muscle in your body. Lie down and either wrap a theraband around your ribs or rest ankle weights on top of your ribs. As you inhale, try to stretch the band or raise the weights. Then as you exhale let the band relax or the weights lower. Repeat for 8 to 12 repetitions. Do this exercise once each day.
Use a Peak Flow Meter
The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute suggests using a peak flow meter to help control your asthma symptoms. As described by the NHLBI, a peak flow meter is a hand-held device that shows how well air moves out of your lungs when you blow into the device. The score provided shows how well your lungs are functioning. This meter can help you recognize when an asthma attack might occur and learn how deeply you can breathe without setting off an attack. This knowledge can then be applied while exercising so you do not trigger an attack.
