LIFESTYLE
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Timely Information for Personal Success
Exercising with Asthma
By Tim Lencki
1) First and foremost, ask your
physician if it’s all right to
begin exercising.
e all know that exercise
2)
Make sure your day-to-day
is good for our health,
asthma is managed.
but it is particularly
3)
Always make sure to suffiimportant for people with asthma.
ciently warm up with some
Among the many benefits of exerlight activity and stretching
cise, the strengthening of the
for 5-to-10 mintues before
lungs is beneficial for people with
your increase the level of
asthma.
intensity.
While being active is impor4)
At the end of the workout, be
tant, the physical exertion that
sure to spend another 5-to-10
activity creates can trigger asthma
minutes cooling down with a
symptoms. This is called exercisesimilar type of light activity.
induced asthma (EIA). However,
An easy walk would be a
exercise can still be an important
good choice.
part of your lifestyle if you learn
5)
Make sure that people you
how to manage asthma.
exercise with know that you
Asthma is most often manifests
have asthma.
itself in cold or dry air. When you
6)
Always have your inhaler
are at rest, you breathe air in
available should it be needed.
through your nose, where the air
is warmed, moistened, and filtered
If you do get EIA while exeras it enters your body. When exercising, stop what you’re doing,
cising, you need more air (oxygen) at a faster rate, therefore, we take your inhaler, and wait until
you’re free of symptoms before
breathe it in through our mouth,
and it doesn’t get filtered. The air- resuming your exercise. If the
ways in our body react to the cold, symptoms do not go away, or if
they return while you’re exercisdry air and the muscles around
them begin to tighten. Symptoms ing, stop exercising for the rest of
the day and see your physician.
of EIA include wheezing, coughMake it a goal to exercise 30
ing, and tightness in the chest.
minutes
three to five times a
These symptoms can occur during
week,
and
at a level that makes
OR after exercise. If you have
asthma, follow these tips when
continued on Page 2
exercising:
W
Employee Assistance Report
Lifestyle Tips Insert
Move a Little
More Each Day
W
hat are some of the
biggest roadblocks to an
active lifestyle? One is
that we don’t know how to begin
exercising propertly. Others
include thinking that we don’t
have enough time to exercise, and
simply sitting too much.
Let’s focus on that last point.
Over 64% of Americans are overweight because they don’t get up
and move around enough. We sit
in waiting rooms, we sit at our
desks, we sit while we’re watching TV, we sit while we’re watching our kids play sports, and we
sit in our cars. What’s the solution? We need to find more ways
to move around. You don’t have
to start a rigorous exercise program right off the bat. If you are a
continued on Page 2
May 2007
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LifestyleTIPS©
2007 Impact Publications, Inc.
1439 Churchill Street, Unit 302,
PO Box 322, Waupaca, WI 54981
Phone: 715-258-2448
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Source: www.foodfit.com
Healthy Recipe: Bananalicious Smoothie
INGREDIENTS:
Website: www.impact-publications.com
Email: [email protected]
DIRECTIONS:
• 1 cup orange juice
• 2 cups plain low-fat yogurt
• 4 small bananas
• Honey to taste
1. Have kids peel the bananas and
measure the orange juice and yogurt.
2. Place all the ingredients in a
blender. Blending should be a team
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION: effort.
• Number of servings: 4
• Calories per serving: 212
3. Blend on high speed until smooth.
• Fat: 5 g.
• Protein: 6 g.
Serving size: About 1 cup.v
• Sodium: 59 mg.
• Carbohydrates: 40 g.
• Fiber: 3 g.
• Saturated fat: 3 g.
Publisher: Jennifer Heisler
Health Consultant: Tim Lencki
Managing Editor: Mike Jacquart
LifestyleTIPS© is published as a
monthly insert included with an EAR
subscription. Contents are not intended
as a substitute for actual medical
advice. Editorial material should be
used with discretion by the reader and
is not endorsed by the owner, publisher,
editors, or distributers.
To order a personalized,
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with the name of your EAP,
call 715-258-2448
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Pricing will vary depending on the quantity ordered.
Asthma
continued from Page 1
you “mildly” breathless. Be sure
NOT to exercise to exhaustion.
Consider walking, cycling,
strength training, or yoga.
Swimming is also a good execise
for people with asthma because of
the warm, humid environment.
However, for some people pool
chemicals may trigger asthma
symptoms so be careful. The
important thing is to be active —
even if it means simply parking
further away from the grocery
store, taking the stairs rather than
the elevator, or walking to the
mailbox instead of driving up to it.
Regular activity should be an
important part of your life, regardless if you have asthma or not.
Just start out slowly and gradually
build up. As fitness guru
Rosemary Conley, who’s had asthma all her life says, “Go gently at
first, but even a five-minute walk
three times a day will make a real
difference.” v
Tim Lencki is a strength and conditioning
specialist, and author of “Fitness One
Day at a Time,” ISBN: 0-595-32260-3. To
subscribe to Tim’s newsletter “Tips for
Fitness Success” go to
www.TheFitnessEducator.com.
Editor’s note: May is Allergy and Asthma
Awareness Month.
Children &
Exercise
E
vidence shows that exercise is also good for
children with asthma. In many cases, it can
improve symptoms and enable children to cut
down on the amount of medicine they have to take.
The tragedy is that about one-third of children with
asthma miss out on sports and physical education
class once a week because of their condition. v
Source: www.asthma.org.uk.
Employee Assistance Report
Move
continued from Page 1
sedentary person, this won’t work.
Start slowly. Move a little more
each day.
There are plenty of times when
we’re in waiting rooms, watching
kids’ soccer games, between TV
shows, or during a coffee break that
you can find time for some activity.
Even if all you can do is find 10 minutes here or there, it’ll be worth it.
The point is that there are plenty
of opportunities for activity, you
just need to find something that you
enjoy doing. Start today, and you’ll
soon feel a big difference. v
Source: Tim Lencki.
Beat the Heat!
A
nother incentive to get in
shape is that you’ll cope
better with heat this summer. Researchers put people of various fitness levels in a hot room
and had them do knee extensions
with every increase in their core
temperature until they reached 103
degrees. Most of the fit folks could
do 10 reps, but less than half of the
unfit ones were able to do the
same. v
Sources: “Medicine & Science in Sports and
Exercise,” “Women’s Health,” March 2007.
Lifestyle Tips Insert
May 2007