I’ve gotten back to exercising now that I’m well enough to get out of my bed and back to life, and in the four months I took off from it, I seem to have lost all respiratory conditioning. My muscles aren’t sore, I’m not exhausted, but I can’t even Zumba my way through one song without clutching my chest.
Since I’ve never had an asthma attack when I wasn’t exerting myself, I haven’t been anywhere near as serious about treating it as I should have been. I think I still have my dad’s voice in my head scoffing at my mom when she told him he had exercise induced asthma. “That’s just called being out of shape,” he’d say, redfaced and wheezing. Today is the first day when I can say, nope. Not at all. Not true.
I should have known ages ago, but I’m never one to accept a limitation willingly. In college I put off PE requirements until my last semester and had to take two aerobics classes back to back three times a week. That’s two hours of working out every other day and even by the end I couldn’t get through the first class without needing to catch my breath. When Bear gets back to working out after a break, he might push too hard and throw up. I have never ever ever gotten even close to that feeling. I pass out first.
So until I condition and medicate my lungs well enough to not kill me, I have two choices. Do a short workout and be frustrated with my lack of progress, or do a short workout, sit in my sweat for a couple of hours, do another short workout, and then hope I’ll have less time being frustrated. My football player husband is getting a kick out of my “Twoaday” workout plan, I’m just hoping that I can reach a point where I’m not hacking up asthmatic phlegm all day.
Have you checked if you have silent Gerd exacerbating the asthma? Some small dietary changes might help with the phlegm problem
Anna
I never realized acid reflux exacerbated asthma! I totally have reflux and I’m bad about taking that medication too. Thanks for the great tip!
No problem. I suffered from Silent Gerd for years, not knowing why I had a chronic cough. I found a book called (amusingly enough) Dropping Acid by a doctor with the last name of Kaufmann (Google would find it). I followed the two week induction diet and now just moderate my intake of foods which cause reflux, and the cough is gone and I can breathe again! (No, I do not work for this doctor, but just thought it might help).