Hi all! I am 57 years old and was diagnosed with COPD after a bout of bilateral pneumonia and septicemia over Christmas and New Year. After reading up on the disease I decided to do three things 1 gain weight, 2 get rid of my bad habit and three start exercising following exercises based on pulmonary rehabilitation, which at present I am on the waiting list for. Based on the six minute walk test I have now built myself up to be able to do 650m in the time. To do this I only allow myself to go up to 4 or 5 on the Borg Scale. That is what I call a fast day. On a slow day I walk slower but a greater distance around 2 miles. I have been trying to think of a way to increase my six minute distance and the only way I can think of is to run. I have already had my heart checked over and so yesterday on my slow day I included four 100m slow jogs whilst on the walk and my breathing remained ok and I gave myself plenty of time in between jogs to recover before the next one. My Oxygen saturations remained fine. Normally if I push it too much my chest lets me know the next day! but today my chest feels fine. So I am very tempted to slowly increase the distance jogged. Anybody else tried jogging? P.S My wife and Daughter think I am mad to even think of doing it.
Exercise and COPD.: Hi all! I am 5... - Lung Conditions C...
Exercise and COPD.
Hi
As long as you feel ok, and keeping to the modified Borg scale 4/5.
At the end of any session you should be able to complete a sentence with one/two breaks. If you can only manger one word at a time then you are working to hard.
Keep your sats above 90%
For pulse rate.
220 minus your age is you maximum pulse rate.
80% is you highest pulse rate.
50% is you lowest pulse rate.
You exercise between the lowest , point you start to burn calories. And you highest point used for muscle building.
A rate at the maximum or above and you should cease all exercise.
One walking test i attended was stopped because my heart was 120, iam 69.
Thanks for that very useful. I never allow my pulse over 130 which is within the safe range. My 02 saturations are always good. I manually check my blood pressure before and after. From your comments I have just about got it right.
Hi
Don't forget upper body, wall press-up and dumb bells.
You seem to able to work out a sensible all round routine.
My pulse rate is always in the high 80's it always has been, my partner's pulse rate is in the low 60's so I don't understand why there is no allowance for the different starting points. All these figures are a bit confusing
Hi
The numbers quoted are related to exercise and how well you are working.
Normal resting adult heart rate range is 60-100 bpm.
Tachycardia is fast heart rate above 100 at rest.
Bradycardia is a slow heart rate below 60.
With a lung condition 80-100 is a normal range.
Mine is 83 at rest.
During sleep a heart rate of 40-50 is considered normal.
Slowly increasing is the way to go. Without sounding like one of my parrots " The more you can do the better you will be later on" quoting my consultant, make sure you get the okay from your doctors first.
Your not alone, being called "mad" by your family, I get it all the time, but as long as it is approved by the medical professionals, why not.
Only problem is getting to see a medical professional...As I said on a waiting for rehab could be a year so I went into find out for myself mode. I am not a complete idiot as an ex nurse I can do a good job of my observations. I have all the kit to do it at home. But trying to get to see the " professionals" for their approval is next impossable so I am doing the best I can.
As an ex nurse you should know more about these things than your family, they are just concerned for you. I could only walk for 35 meters 6 months ago and I have slowly built up to a mile and a half before having to stop and it is the claudication in my legs that stops me now, not the being short of breath. Sure I'm puffing like a steam train but I am able to handle that, just about, 5 miles without stopping is my goal.
I can run to catch a bus now too although that does make the old ticker pound a little and don't make a habit of it. I am 67 this year and my FEV1 at 37%. Both respiratory and cardiac consultants approve of my 25 mins a day of vigorous exercise per day, w/e I do 2 or 3 sessions per day, I also work full time as a production engineer. It does take a lot will power and determination, which you sound as if you have.
I also have PAH along with Emphysema, and waiting for results of a recent PET Scan, goodness knows what that is going to say.
Wow that's a long time to wait for PR. I have been on 3 different courses and have never had to wait that long.
Instead of waiting for a P rehab ask your gp if they do a pulse course. I did that at the local gym after a referral from the gp. It's supervised by trained people. At our local gym it was twice a week and what you did was suggested by the supervisors. The pulse course lasted 12 weeks. After that I joined the gym and now just get on with it by myself. I found when I dithe rehab course that the exercises were not stretching me but the talks were good.
Not waiting for pulmonary rehabilitation, pulse course sounds good but GP next to useless unless it's chemical and comes out of a bottle. I am doing at least 45 minutes a day exercise already. I think by the time pulmonary rehabilitation comes along I will be at a point where it will not challenge me.
Jogged 300m yesterday, felt I could have done more but did not want to push it. No adverse reactions this morning.
Candles and copd? 
Exercise - How do you rate on thiis? I pretty much failed the 6MWT
Concerns about breathing
I'M OFF TO REHAB YES YES YES!
