Jenna Zaffino [00:00:11]:
If you've ever wondered about how exercise can support your lung disease management, you're not alone. In fact, millions of people are turning towards exercise as a means of supporting their overall health and well-being while living with lung disease. That said, it can feel counterintuitive to think about exercising when breathing is already a challenge, and that's why it's so important to consult with your health care provider before starting any increase in activity level or engaging into an exercise program overall. Speaking with your doctor will allow you to receive the guidance you need to choose activities that are an appropriate intensity level, duration of time, and also give you some ways to manage any symptoms that might arise from engaging in exercise. The good news is when approached from an informed place that is supported by your health care provider, exercise has the potential to improve your lung function, reduce your symptoms, strengthen your heart, and enhance your overall quality of life. So let's talk about a few things to keep in mind after you speak to your doctor and before you begin any exercise program. The best practice when beginning any exercise routine is to focus on starting slow and steady. We want to enter into any new program with a level of low impact consideration.
This helps us prepare our tissues for more load, resistance, weights over time, and for a little more intensity. Things like consistent walking, swimming, or even a slower resistance based program can be a great entry point if you haven't been exercising at all. If you have a baseline of exercise under your belt, then perhaps you can move into some of the routines with more intensity with a little more ease. The goal is to challenge your body appropriately for what it can handle and move on with challenges incrementally as you grow stronger over time. One of the best ways to make exercise effective is to do it consistently. And finding something that you love doing is the perfect entry point to make that happen. The more you show up for movement, the more movement is going to show up for you. And anytime we engage in a consistent activity or behavior, we start to build a habit which starts to put a little bit of a positive expectation into your brain.
Choosing activities that you look forward to, that you feel like yourself in, you have a good time doing is the best way to get your motivational juices flowing and that will help you lead yourself into doing more exercise more regularly which will benefit your body in its entirety. It's also always important to pay attention to the signals your body is giving you. You are the authority on your own experience and anytime you're receiving a signal of fatigue or exhilaration, it's important to note that and check out the circumstances that you're experiencing when those signals come up. This will give you a lot of information from which to make really informed decisions about whether to go a little harder on some days or whether to ease back on others. It's also helpful to bookend your sessions with an ample warm up and cool down. This will help get your brain, your heart, your lungs on board with the fact that you're about to do something physical and also give you time to recover afterwards. It's a great idea to build these into any of your activities that you do on your own and you can be confident that any of the classes in the energized life library will include a warm up and a cool down for you. If you are a person who's using supplemental oxygen as part of your lung disease management, be sure to talk to your health care provider before starting an exercise program.
They may be able to offer you some helpful advice as to how to manage the flow of oxygen while you're exercising. It's a great idea to check-in with the air quality if you plan to exercise outdoors. Be mindful of the days when air quality is low and pollution may be higher and this is a good opportunity to opt in to an indoor space that might carry more ventilation or more filtration of the air to just give you an easier experience with your breath work during movement overall. We know that managing lung disease can be challenging but with the right approach, exercise can become a powerful tool to help you improve your overall health and well-being. I invite you to check out some of our movement classes in the PCN wellness hub, including classes in the mindful compass library, the energized life library, and partner practices in the shared strength library. Don't forget to check-in with your health care provider before starting any new activity.
And remember, you are strong and resilient, and the small moments matter. I'll see you soon.
