Increase your lung efficiency with exercise

Exercising on a regular basis is critical for fitness. Regular aerobic exercise is essential for cardiovascular fitness as the exercise reduces the amount of work the lungs need to do. However, you cannot increase your lung capacity with regular exercise and if you suffer from lung disorders such as COPD, asthma or emphysema regular exercise …

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Breathing difficulty, symptoms and treatment

If you are someone who suffers from shortness of breath, have trouble breathing or find you have to put in more effort to breathe, then you probably have a respiratory illness or some form of lung disease such as emphysema, COPD or asthma.  Whether you are resting, exercising or simply lying flat, you can suffer …

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Five COPD treatment tips to control the quality of your indoor air

Indoor air can be just as polluted as outdoor air. Even more so. For those who suffer from COPD and other respiratory illnesses, spending time indoors is not by choice. This is why it is important that the quality of the indoor air is as pollution free as possible. To help improve the quality of …

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Olympic Torchbearer Nick visited POWERbreathe Towers today

POWERbreathe Classic user Nick Howden-Steenstra, 18, and his good friend Alex Hutchinson, 19, visited POWERbreathe Towers this morning to fill us in about the challenge they’ve chosen to undertake: celebrating the coming of the Olympics from Greece to London and raising money via their Just Giving page for Macmillan Cancer Support and Amnesty International. The …

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Cold weather affects my POWERbreathe training

A rather sad update this week with the harrowing news that I ended up getting ill at the back end of last week and it has taken the week to get over. It all happened because of this rubbish cold weather we are enduring. I know the cold affects people in different ways but it …

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Increase your lung efficiency with exercise Breathing difficulty, symptoms and treatment Five COPD treatment tips to control the quality of your indoor air Olympic Torchbearer Nick visited POWERbreathe Towers today Cold weather affects my POWERbreathe training

Feb
22

Increase your lung efficiency with exercise

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by Vanessa

Inspiratory Muscle TrainingExercising on a regular basis is critical for fitness. Regular aerobic exercise is essential for cardiovascular fitness as the exercise reduces the amount of work the lungs need to do. However, you cannot increase your lung capacity with regular exercise and if you suffer from lung disorders such as COPD, asthma or emphysema regular exercise will not improve lung function.

Regular physical activity will help strengthen your limb muscles  and helpto reduce shortness of breath symptoms and increase your stamina.

Function of the respiratory system

The respiratory system is made up of the nose, throat, windpipe and lungs.  This whole system works together to provide your body with life nourishing air in order for you to survive, as well as removing the waste gasses from your body.  To breathe correctly the airways must be open and clear of inflammation and large amounts of mucus.

Do you have asthma

You do if you suffer from shortness of breath, wheezing and constant coughing. These are all triggered by physical exertion or exercise..  When your airways constrict, extra mucus is produced and this is when the above symptoms will occur.

This doesn’t mean to say an asthma sufferer cannot enjoy running or jogging it just means they should choose indoor track venues rather than running outdoors as indoor their lungs will not breathe in any air pollutants.  Another important point to remember is warm up and cool down. Correct warm up and cool down exercises can also reduce the risk of exercise induced asthma.

Perfect exercise for asthma sufferers include swimming and yoga. Yoga is particularly good as it concentrates on breathing techniques, stretching and meditation.

Do you suffer from Emphysema?

Anyone who has this respiratory condition should take up walking as this is the best form of exercise for emphysema sufferers. Emphysema is a permanent form of COPD and is mainly found in people who are heavy smokers. If you do suffer from emphysema then two or three 15 minute walks per day are advisable. Strength training exercises can help build arm and leg muscles which may ease breathing difficulty while improving endurance. Breathing and balance techniques practiced may also benefit emphysema patients and help with their COPD treatment.

 

 

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Feb
22

Breathing difficulty, symptoms and treatment

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by Vanessa

Respiratory SymptomIf you are someone who suffers from shortness of breath, have trouble breathing or find you have to put in more effort to breathe, then you probably have a respiratory illness or some form of lung disease such as emphysema, COPD or asthma.  Whether you are resting, exercising or simply lying flat, you can suffer breathing difficulty symptoms.  If you can pinpoint the triggers that cause these breathing problems then you can find out what the underlying cause is.

Symptoms contributing to breathing difficulty

So what are the symptoms? If you have severe breathing problems then the most common symptoms are rapid respiratory rate, continuous wheezing and nasal flaring. Anyone who suffers from severe breathing problems will place extra strain on the neck and chest muscles to breathe.  For example, an asthma sufferer will experience breathing difficulty with wheezing while someone who suffers from a heart condition will find they experience breathing problems when they exercise.

Treatment for breathing difficulties

Breathing conditions are treated differently. It all depends on what the underlying cause is for the breathing problem you have. Many treatments are available – some medications and some drug-free treatments.  An inspiratory muscle trainer can help with any breathing problems you may have and is a suitable aid for COPD treatment as it exercises and strengthens the muscles you use to breathe. Inspiratory Muscle Training (IMT) is scientifically proven to benefit patients with respiratory illness.

 

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Feb
20

Five COPD treatment tips to control the quality of your indoor air

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by Vanessa

copd-sphereIndoor air can be just as polluted as outdoor air. Even more so. For those who suffer from COPD and other respiratory illnesses, spending time indoors is not by choice. This is why it is important that the quality of the indoor air is as pollution free as possible.

To help improve the quality of air indoors, here are some top tips which will help anyone who suffers from COPD, asthma or any other respiratory illness.

 

#1 You need to take charge of the air you breathe inside

Over anything else you need to take charge of your home if you want to improve the quality of the indoor air you breathe.  What this means is identifying the three main categories of substances that reduce the quality of your indoor air.  These are:

Allergens

Substances that cause your body’s immune system to have an allergic response. These include dust mites and pollen.

Irritants

These are substances that irritate your respiratory system. Common sources of irritants include paint, tobacco smoke and chemicals in cleaning products.

Dangerous chemicals

These are less common but cause greater harm on our health. These would include chemicals containing carbon monoxide which is highly  poisonous and if detected in the home should be immediately eliminated.

#2 Talk to Your Doctor

Most health care specialists are very knowledgeable regarding issues surrounding air pollution – indoor and outdoor. Talk to your healthcare official or GP and they will help you with a plan to help you manage indoor pollution. Your GP knows you best so is the best person to advise you.

#3 Ensure your home is properly ventilated

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), one of the most important ways that you can reduce the build-up of indoor air pollution is to properly ventilate your home.  Properly ventilating your home is easy. All you need to do is make sure you open windows, use exhaust fans and use window fans. Having exhaust fans fitted also benefit any home as they help to reduce moisture.

#4 Tell the smokers to smoke outside

The worst irritant of all for someone who suffers from   a respiratory condition is tobacco smoke. Breathing in second hand smoke is dangerous to your health. Anyone who is a smoker and is visiting your home, why not ask them politely to go outside and smoke.

#5 Say goodbye to the house guests known as dust mites

If you did not know, dust mites survive by eating dead skin cells from humans and animals. Although invisible to the human eye these little mites are a  major contributor of indoor pollution and are found in all homes. Dust mites have brittle shells that create dried particles. People can actually inhale these particles and cause damage to their lungs. You can reduce the dust mite population within your home with these few simple steps:

  • Try and wash your bed linen on a weekly basis.
  • Lower your indoor humidity level to below 50% (with a dehumidifier or air-conditioner)
  • If you have pets, keep them off the furniture.

Following these simple steps can ensure your COPD treatment will be effective as well as help improve the quality of your indoor air. Some healthcare professionals may recommend you use a breathing trainer which will help you with your respiratory conditions.

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Feb
20

Olympic Torchbearer Nick visited POWERbreathe Towers today

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by PB Admin

Anne Brar, Director, and Duncan Kerr presenting POWERbreathe to Nick and AlexPOWERbreathe Classic user Nick Howden-Steenstra, 18, and his good friend Alex Hutchinson, 19, visited POWERbreathe Towers this morning to fill us in about the challenge they’ve chosen to undertake: celebrating the coming of the Olympics from Greece to London and raising money via their Just Giving page for Macmillan Cancer Support and Amnesty International.

The 4000km-plus Torch Triathlon 2012 (3250km cycling, 813km running and 122km swimming) is unprecedented, with such triathlon distances not being covered self-supported before.

The official Olympic torch is to be lit at the Temple of Hera in Olympia, Greece, on the 18th May and flown to England. Nick and Alex intend to bring another representative Olympic torch to England from the very same temple via the 4000km Torch Triathlon, one month earlier.

Nick and Alex popped into POWERbreathe Towers to receive a POWERbreathe Plus Ironman Heavy Resistance each, to help them strengthen their breathing muscles for the event, and warm-up their breathing muscles every day before each challenge.

Nick and Alex will be setting off for their Torch Triathlon from Greece on February 22nd, arriving in London on April 7th, in time for Nick to take part in the 2012 London Olympics Torch Relay on 1st July.

You can follow Nick and Alex on Facebook and we’ll keep you updated on their progress here too.

Everyone at POWERbreathe Towers would like to wish Nick and Alex all the best for a successful event.

If you have any comments that you’d like to leave for Nick or Alex, please feel free to do so.

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Feb
20

Cold weather affects my POWERbreathe training

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by Vanessa

A rather sad update this week with the harrowing news that I ended up getting ill at the back end of last week and it has taken the week to get over. It all happened because of this rubbish cold weather we are enduring. I know the cold affects people in different ways but it freezes my chin, turns my lips blue and my speech starts to resemble an inebriated embarrassing father at a wedding (slurred and fairly incomprehensible). I also struggle with the ability to pick up a virus rather easily, a combination of poor genetics (thanks parents) and this running lark I do.

From the limited research that has been done, especially for marathon runners, the prolonged high-intensity exercise is associated with an increased risk of infection.

The day that created the illness I was out doing 3x15mins at threshold and it was raining. I have always protested that running in the rain is bad for you but I had to get the session done. I knew that I would be working hard during the session so didn’t overload with clothing and although I was shivering a bit when I go out the door, as soon as I got running I knew all would be ok. I also had it in my mind that as soon as I got back from the session I was to get in the shower to warm up. I did all this and still got ill. Upon reflection, not having a hat on was my biggest mistake  of the day. I thought that I had avoided getting anything as I felt fine up until midday. Then, as you can guess, my condition deteriorated during the afternoon. It started with aches down my back, I attempted to fight back with as much medicine as I could stuff down my throat but it was too late, I was doomed to illness. I ended up with a temperature and feeling very drained for the next few days. Running had to take a back seat and making sure it didn’t become an issue was top priority.

What has this meant for my POWERbreathe training?

POWERbreathe training really took a turn for the worse as I did. I decided to take a couple of days off the device. Whilst medically I am sure I was perfectly fine to keep training, everything felt really terrible so I didn’t.

Once I had got over the worst of it my training didn’t come back together instant ally and that was the same with the POWERbreathe. What was really interesting is that after a few days I certainly felt a slight drop in my performance. I wanted to see what the time off would have done to my test scores, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had only dropped 10 points on the S-index. The first few training sessions back were a little bit lighter than usual, only because I was still struggling.

 

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Feb
19

Madeline Simon (MS) – No POWERbreathe training last week

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by PB Admin

Madeline SimonMy cerebella tremors have been a real pain and I have been feeling quite exhausted. But I know when I start feeling like this the best answer is to exercise and hopefully it will pass. Mind you sometimes that’s easier said than done. My POWERbreathe routine even got hit, I just felt so exhausted. But I promise you, you WILL hear a difference next week.

I hope you all had a good valentine and got spoilt rotten.

 

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Feb
16

POWERbreathe practice has slowed

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by Vanessa

Elspeth RaisbeckMy day job as a nurse is in teaching patients with Growth Hormone deficiency how to use their fancy electronic device that gives them daily injections of Growth Hormone.  A lot of my patients are children and the new gadget is great fun for the first few weeks but then the novelty wears off.  A big part of the job is keeping them on treatment long enough for it to do its job.

I am that child!  I’m 7 weeks into using my POWERbreathe and have found that I’m not practising as often as I need to be so I’m not feeling the benefit…which means I don’t practise so much as I’m not getting the positive feedback from my running that practice gives me.  And so the cycle goes on.

My POWERbreathe sits on my desk staring at me resentfully.

Over the last week I’ve made a real effort to break this cycle and have been using it with Swiss ball home exercise DVDs and on a more regular basis each day.  And I think I feel the plateau I’d reached with my running times and ‘ease scores’ starting to improve.

Note –to-self: keep practising – it won’t work unless you do.

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Feb
15

Are you using your POWERbreathe correctly?

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by Vanessa

Here is a short video of our Duncan demonstrating how to correctly use the POWERbreathe.  He has also provided his top tips so read on to find out what Duncan’s secrets are to using the POWERbreathe effectively.

  1. Make sure the load is correctly set as you need to maximize the volume of each breath you take. If it is too high then you will struggle.
  2. When using for the first time, always start on the lowest load setting and get used to doing 30 breaths twice a day.
  3. When you can easily maintain a powerful breath for 30 breaths then you can start to increase the load.  If you have one of the POWERbreathe K Series units this is done automatically.
  4. As you increase the load, your volume will drop but as your breathing muscles adapt the volume will come back up and then you increase the load again.
  5. It is important to breath out slowly fully emptying the lungs and then to breathe in rapidly and maintain the breath as long as possible -  effectively to fire as many muscle fibres in the diaphragm as quickly as possible and then to maximize the volume of the breath using the intercostal and other muscle groups.  This will develop your power and maximize the volume you were born with.

You will soon get used to the sound of a good breath.  You should feel like you have done a workout at the end and sweat a little but not don’t give up at 15 breaths because you find it too hard. Remember, don’t be too aggressive going for a high load at the beginning as it will only put you off.  Move up in increments, be patient and don’t over train.

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Feb
14

Go POWERbreathe Go

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by Vanessa

A couple of weeks into the POWERbreathe training now. The big news is that I broke 200 on my test score. That was very exciting for me! My S-index was 205.1. It was a bit of a shock when I did the test and that score came up but obviously the training is doing something. One of the great features of the unit is that is provides you with targets and numbers to improve on and this certainly provides me with plenty of motivation for my training.

I know that I have only just started using the unit but I already think it is helping with the running. I did a hill session a few days ago, it was 3 x10 minutes Kenyan Hills uphill. What this means is that I have to run up a hill for a period of time, then turn around and run down.

Doesn’t sound so bad but the only part of the session that counts towards the 10 minutes is the going up. So each part lasts for just under 20 minutes, you then have to do that 2 more times!! Not only did the session go really well but I definitely felt my breathing was stronger than before. It may be purely psychological but any sort of benefit I can get.

I have also spent this week researching the POWERbreathe range and having a look at the other models that they sell. Part of this is because I am sad, and partly because the K5 would be a bit too pricey for most people. The K series is phenomenal because of the auto loading feature, and I would probably want to spring for the K2 over the K1 (as it has the test feature) but I might be tempted to spend the extra on the K3 to add in the warm up/cool down feature, more on this in next week’s blog. As I have said before, I love the breathe link software so if you can afford to get it I really recommend it.

Of the rest of the range, I would probably purchase a POWERbreathe plus. It will create enough resistance to be a useful training tool and doesn’t look too bad either. At £50 it will not break the bank but still provide all the benefits of a POWERbreathe device.

Right, off to do some more training.

Check back soon for another update!

 

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Feb
14

POWERbreathe at the 10th Triathlon Show

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by PB Admin

Triathlon 2012POWERbreathe will  be exhibiting at the 10th Triathlon Show, set to be a sell‐out success with a jam‐packed schedule of events and seminars.

The hugely popular Triathlon Show (formally The TCR) will take place on 2nd to 4thMarch 2012 at Sandown Park, Esher.

The leading multi‐sport show, targeted specifically to the triathlete, is ten years’ old this year and attracts amateur, professional and celebrity triathletes in the masses. This year, with over 150 represented brands and exhibitors, the show is a must for all with an interest in triathlon, featuring informative seminars, from Q&As with Chrissie Wellington, to bike set‐up, to cracking your run PB.

There will be a host of top sporting names present at the show, including four‐time Ironman WorldChampion and record holder, Chrissie Wellington, Hywell Davies and Rick Kiddle. Show‐goers will have the chance to get first‐hand top tips and an insight into what it takes to reach the top of the game.

Come and say  hello to POWERbreathe and try this breathing training out for yourself, or take the challenge and test your breathing strength against the athletes. We’d love to meet you on Stand K34.

For more information about the whole event and ticket price information check the official website

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