Monthly Topic of Interest
Staying Healthy: Activity and Fitness for Alphas
September 2007
Who Should Exercise?
Exercise should be an integral part of everyone’s health maintenance plan, whether or not they’ve been diagnosed with a genetic condition. An activity and fitness program is, without a doubt, a cornerstone in the foundation of your Alpha-1 treatment plan.
Unfortunately, few of us have just one health concern. If you have osteoporosis, arthritis, a previous muscle injury, or other health issues such as, diabetes, high blood pressure, or heart problems, your choice of exercise should take these conditions into account. Few conditions call for the elimination of exercise, none-the-less it is generally a good idea to consult with your physician before beginning any exercise program.
For those Alphas diagnosed with lung or liver disease, the first step before beginning any exercise program is to obtain a medical evaluation for cardiac risk and exercise capacity. Your physician may recommend that you have a stress test after which he will be better able to advise you about beginning an appropriate exercise program.
Your doctor may say you can just go ahead and start exercising or he may recommend a medically supervised program. In either case it is helpful if he provides you with an “exercise prescription” that will detail the intensity, duration, and frequency of the exercises that are appropriate for you.
In the event that your exercise plan allows you to exercise independently, that is, without medical supervision, it is wise to follow a few simple recommendations. It is best to increase the duration, (the amount of time you spend exercising) and frequency (the number of days per week that you exercise) before progressing to a higher intensity level. If you have unusual symptoms with exercise, decrease the intensity (speed, tension, or weight), to a level that does not cause unusual symptoms.
If you’ve been diagnosed with moderate to severe lung disease, your physician may refer you to a Pulmonary Rehabilitation program, provided one is available in your area. Pulmonary Rehabilitation programs provide exercise under the direct supervision of healthcare professionals who monitor your progress during exercises. Based on this monitoring they are able to safely direct your exercise program to meet your specific needs.
Get a Move On! Dealing with those Excuses
Becoming as physically fit as you can, requires more than just getting an occasional workout. It requires a commitment that you make to yourself on a daily basis. For many of us, therefore, the first exercise we need to do is a mental one … we need to find the motivation to exercise that will enable us to make that commitment.
The following are some suggestions for demystifying some of our excuses for beginning an exercise program.
“I’m too tired”...
Often times, we feel tired because when we get out of shape, even our ordinary day-to-day activities can become fatiguing. Regular exercise strengthens muscles, increases stamina, and reduces fatigue. “Feeling too tired” often is exactly the right time to get some exercise.
“I’m too busy”, “I have more important things to do”, and “I’ll do it later”...
Think about your typical day and estimate how much time you spend on each of your activities. The number of hours per week most Americans watch television is staggering! How many of your daily activities are more important to you than your health?
You only need to find 20 minutes a day to get started on your fitness plan. Over time, you can increase your workout to 30, 45, and 60 minutes a day several times each week.
Once you get into your exercise routine, you might even say, “This is the most important thing I do for myself!”
“I’m too short of breath”
Perhaps the single most important benefit of exercise training for people with Alpha-1 COPD is its positive effects on shortness of breath, or dyspnea.
The fear of dyspnea often inhibits exertion, and may severely impact your willingness to perform such day-to-day activities as shopping or housecleaning. It’s not unusual for Alphas with lung disease to often find they do fewer and fewer activities that involve physical exertion.
Unfortunately, this lack of exercise further decreases your tolerance for exercise in general and ultimately can lead to a more advanced stage of physical disability. This disability is partially the result of what is known as “progressive deconditioning”. Deconditioning, or losing fitness, occurs when you stop exercising. It becomes progressive because the less you do, the less you feel able to do!
With proper exercises, you can teach yourself to coordinate your breathing with your activities, to conserve energy and increase your ability to be more active, without experiencing dyspnea.
When is it not safe for you to exercise?
When you feel nauseated, when you are experiencing leg pain that cannot be explained, when you have chest pain or when you have strep throat or a fever or any time when your physician specifically advises against it.
The Benefits of Exercise
For all of us the long-term benefits of routine exercising are numerous:
- Increases your muscle strength and endurance.
- Promotes improved blood circulation and efficient oxygenation
- Reduces the workload on heart and lungs
- Manages your weight
- Improves your appearance
- Decreases fatigue, aches, and pains
- Improves your sleep
- Improves your mood and sense of well-being
In addition, regular exercise helps:
- Control blood sugar levels
- Promotes improved joint function
- Boost the immune system to fight infections
- Decreases the risk of developing heart disease
- Strengthens the bones
- Increases life span
Designing an Exercise Program
A good exercise program consists of these three parts:
Warm-up and stretching
- Prepares you for physical exertion
- Improves your flexibility and coordination
Cardiovascular exercise
- Strenuous activity that increases circulation
- Improves heart and respiratory function
Muscle strengthening
- Repetitious resistance or weight training
- Improves ability to work (and play!) without fatigue
Find a form of exercise that’s fun for you…
Try different things. If you haven’t tried a particular form of exercise because you think it’s boring, give it a try, you might be surprised to find it to be fun. Still, not everybody thinks walking on a treadmill or riding a stationary bicycle is fun, and there is no “one-size-fits-all” exercise plan.
You might prefer to exercise:
- In a gym with a personal trainer
- In a class filled with enthusiastic participants
- In your living room with an exercise video
- Outdoors
- On a dance floor
- Swimming, biking, running, or walking
Easy things to do to improve your activity and fitness level
- Choose to walk instead of driving whenever possible
- Get off the bus earlier than your scheduled stop
- Park your car further away in the parking lot
- Use the stairs instead of the elevator
- Limit the time you spend sitting and watching TV
- Throughout the day, get up to bend and stretch for a few minutes every hour
- Challenge yourself to look for other opportunities to get more activity into your life.
Pulmonary Rehabilitation
Pulmonary Rehabilitation programs are medically supervised exercise programs. Healthcare professional design the program to meet your specific requirements based on an assessment of your current level of fitness. Your progress is monitored and the program is adapted to help you safely progress along the fitness spectrum.
Most frequently, pulmonary rehabilitation programs are designed for someone whose fitness level is such that they are having difficulty performing activities of daily living at home and work, due to breathlessness and fatigue.
The typical Pulmonary Rehabilitation program has three components that include an assessment, exercise therapy and education.
Each program begins with an evaluation of your current fitness level. One of the tools normally used is the 6-minute walk. In performing the 6-minute walk, evaluators measure the distance completed in six minutes while monitoring oxygen saturation, perceived breathlessness, perceived exertion, and heart rate. Using the results of the 6-minute walk and a variety of other assessment tools, an exercise training program is designed specifically for you.
Your program will generally include the use of several different pieces of exercise equipment including the treadmill, stationary bike and hand weights. Exertion level will be very light initially and then build to higher levels, always under the watchful eye of medical professionals.
In addition to exercise training, you will be involved in classes designed to inform and assist you in managing your breathlessness and fatigue. Topics likely to be included are; proper nutrition, the proper use of inhalers, oral and inhaled medications, the anatomy and physiology of the lung, stress management and oxygen therapy.
The information provided here has been extracted from AlphaNet’s “Big Fat Reference Guide”, the most comprehensive guide to living with Alpha-1 found anywhere. For a more complete discussion of Activity and Fitness for Alphas and Pulmonary Rehabilitation go to the AlphaNet homepage and click on “BFRG”.