Is Pulmonary Rehabilitation Right For You?
If you have chronic breathing issues, or if you suffer from one of the many forms of COPD Pulmonary Rehabilitation may help improve and/or reduce the severity of your symptoms, and improve your lung capacity. “Pulmonary rehabilitation is a program that can help you learn how to breathe easier and improve your quality of life. It includes breathing retraining, exercise training, education, and counseling.”- Cleveland Clinic. While Pulmonary Rehabilitation does not replace medical rehabilitation it does work had in hand to improve your symptoms.
Exercise is a key element in pulmonary rehabilitation as it has been shown to: improve circulation, allow the body to use oxygen more efficiently, increase energy levels, reduce shortness of breath, improve lung capacity over time, lower blood pressure, reduce stress, reduce depression, strengthen the heart and cardiovascular health among many other benefits.
With pulmonary rehabilitation, your therapist or health care provider will help you build an exercise program that will help reduce your COPD symptoms and it’s matched to your level of fitness for optimum results and safety.
Exercise programs can be broken into 3 key categories: stretching, cardiovascular, and strengthening all of which are used in pulmonary rehabilitation and each with their own set of benefits.
Stretching is important to prepare the muscles for physical activity and also improves flexibility. Additionally, it is an important part of conditioning as it helps prevent injury.
Cardiovascular exercises are key to pulmonary rehabilitation as they directly impact your COPD symptoms “this type of exercise strengthens the heart and lungs, and improves the body’s ability to use oxygen. Over time, aerobic exercise can help decrease your heart rate and blood pressure, and improve your breathing”- Cleveland Clinic.
Strengthening exercises are also used in pulmonary rehabilitation as some strengthening exercises can actually help strengthen your respiratory muscles. Using a breathing resistance exerciser like Expand-A-Lung is a great way to target your respiratory muscles for strength training.
While pulmonary rehabilitation is not a replacement for traditional medicine it can help improve your health and your quality of life. To decide if pulmonary rehabilitation is right for you it is important to consult with your doctor and decide which options are available to you.
