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:
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Employee Assistance Report
Lifestyle Tips Insert
Move a Little More Each Day
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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 Fax: 715-258-9048
Source: www.foodfit.com
Healthy Recipe: Bananalicious Smoothie INGREDIENTS:
Website: www.impact-publications.com Email: info@impact-publications.com
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, color version of LifestyleTIPS© with the name of your EAP,
call 715-258-2448 or email us at
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Asthma
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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
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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
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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!
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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