Dealing With Asthma While Lifting

Asthma sucks. Whether you have been suffering from this annoying condition ever since you were a wee lad with dreams of powerlifting grandeur, or if you have only started suffering from it later in life, you know that this problem (I’m not calling it an illness because you’re not sick) can severely affect your performance and hinder your fitness career.

Unfortunately, asthma cannot be cured (hence the reason we hate it), but it can be controlled. So much so in fact, that with proper training, medication, prevention and rest, you can completely eliminate its symptoms and actually reach your goals just as efficiently as the next guy. Let’s take a look at what asthma is and how you can effectively relieve its symptoms.

Asthma Can Affect Anyone

There are two major types of asthma: childhood asthma and occupational asthma. The former refers to the onset of asthma in prepubescent children, and most occurs within the first two years of a child’s life, passed on from a parent.

In the majority of cases, childhood asthma goes away with age, and completely disappears when you hit puberty. Yet, plenty of people cannot call themselves as lucky, as their asthma not only decides to stay, but sometimes worsens with age.

Occupational asthma can entail a great deal of things, and it can affect people of all ages, for a myriad of reasons. You might have caught asthma by inhaling fumes, living in a humid, dusty, or dirty environment, or by participating in strenuous physical activity when your body simply wasn’t ready for it.

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Additionally, you might have developed allergic asthma, also passed on from your parents, or induced by allergenic stimuli.

Whatever the case may be, I am here to tell you that this is not the end of the road for you, you can empower yourself, grab the condition by its tiny little throat, and slam its face into the deadlift platform! Here is how you can overcome it for good.

Prevention and Medication

First thing’s first, asthma is best treated with proper prevention and medication. In most mild asthma cases, you can get away with a single dose of your inhaler prior to and after your training session, yet for most people, true asthma hardship begins at night.

Asthma regularly spikes in the evening and very early in the morning, making recovery and proper sleeping cycles impossible to manage, thus hindering your performance the following day.

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For this reason, it becomes extremely important to employ a more effective solution that will ensure proper sleep from the moment you close your eyes to the moment the alarm goes off in the morning.

In order to achieve this, you need to breathe in the best air possible, and that can in turn be achieved by finding yourself one of the best air purifiers on the market. You can read air purifier reviews online, and buy the one that most suits your lifestyle and home. Even if you think the air you are breathing in is not polluted, you will be surprised you much you are mistaken.

Do Not Stop Exercising

Probably the biggest mistake people make when suffering from asthma is taking prolonged breaks from physical activity or completely stopping, in order to avoid sparking its symptoms and risking a trip to the emergency room.

Depending on the severity of your condition, you want to tailor your exercise regime and utilize its cardio-vascular benefits to subdue and eliminate the symptoms.

Remember, physical activity is good for you no matter what, and if you deprive your lungs and bronchial tubes the exercise they need to become stronger and force them to pump air into your body, they will become lazy and even develop a state of constant inflammation.

You want to tailor your training split to optimally utilize cardiovascular endurance paired with the benefits of anaerobic exercise, by adhering to your powerlifting goals, and sprinkling in aerobic warmups and building up your respiratory capacity with supersets and circuits.

For instance, a good way to inhibit asthma symptoms during exercise is to pair your main lifts with core exercises in between sets. Not only will ab work contribute to your heavy lifts by bracing and tightening your core, but it will also exude more energy and require you to build up your recovery rate.

Start your lifting sessions by punching the heavy bag for 10 minutes and end it with pushup-to-pullup speed work to push your limits and make your lungs stronger over time.

The definition of insanity entails constantly doing the same things expecting a different result. If you do nothing, then nothing will ever change. Be sure to follow these simple and effective guidelines, listen to your body, make it grow, and whatever you do, never stop fighting!

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