It is extremely difficult to exercise your way to weight loss. Getting your diet under control is much faster and less impactful for a person who is already 100+ pounds overweight. Once a baseline caloric deficit is reached and some initial weight loss started, it is much easier to get into some higher impact exercises and it will be much less difficult to breathe. In the meantime, walking is easy and burns calories and doesn’t generally cause breathing issues.
My next door neighbor is trying to lose a 100lbs. But having real problems getting his breathing under control when exercising. Is there like a breathing exercise he can do everyday to improve?
Submitted 2 weeks ago by Patnou@lemmy.world to [deleted]
Comments
rljkeimig@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Patnou@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
He just basically wants to walk around the block without having to stop to catch his breath.
Stormy@thelemmy.club 2 weeks ago
Can he get to a pool?
At my pool in the morning and late at night several heavier people walk laps. They smile the entire time, and when it’s just a few people in there, they seem to really be able to just relax and enjoy the exercise. Float a minute, or stand on the side and catch their breath.
I was at the gym with a guy several times a week that lost probabyly 100-150 lbs that way. Looked like a new person after a couple years.
He started just doing regular laps like me instead of walking around a year and a half though, he might have just liked swimming.
finallymadeanaccount@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Middle aged fat guy here, but used to walk for exercise. Decent pace, about 5km per day. But one day, just after I started out, out of nowhere, I couldn’t seem to get enough oxygen. Well, it felt like I could get a full breath, but nothing was happening with it.
I stopped until I could ‘get my breath back’, then continued my walk with no problems.
Next time I went to the doctor, I told him about it. Various tests, etc. Turned out to be Atrial Fibrillation. It’s where the top half of your heart says, “Nah. Don’t feel like pumping blood today. You can just have it trickle down to the lower chamber”. Lower chamber fervently grabs what oxygenated blood it can to pump to the rest of the body.
Fortunately, able to be managed in my instance, with medication (though I did have a ‘cardioversion’, where they stop your heart for a beat to ‘reset’ it).
Given the severity it can take in others, I feel very fortunate mine is manageable.
Your friend might not have that, but they might. It’s an easy couple of tests to find out.
I’m still fat, but I’m still walking, and more often than not, I realise how good feeling like I’m getting enough oxygen is. Which is a nice little boost.
angband@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
I was a 3 sport athlete in high school and played trombone through college, so I never really had to think about breathing exercises as a standalone thing. My first question is how intense is the exercise? They may be overexerting during the workout, which causes problems with breathing. If the exercise is appropriate for their age and weight, then they definitely need to work on their breathing.
Most people, myself included, are usually pretty lazy with our breathing; we take mostly half breaths, punctuated with the occasional deeper breath. Both types are inappropriate for exercise. Tbh I’d probably start with breathing exercises suited for playing instruments; inhale through the nose, and allow the top of your belly to “expand” first. Then breathe out through your mouth.
This is your diaphragm, it’s properly expanding in this method. Because your diaphragm probably hasn’t done this in a long time, you might notice that your breath is shorter than your typical deep breath. This is normal. You aren’t used to breathing properly, so you don’t have proper lung capacity. The more it’s worked on, the more automatic it becomes and improves endurance.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
does he have asthma, or diabetes? sounds like asthmatic person. they need an inhaler when they are running, i knew someone hs like this.
bitteroldcoot@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Or he has a respiratory problem like asthma and needs to see a pulmonologist.
Exercise induced asthma is a thing.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/exercise-induced-asthma/symptoms-causes/syc-20372300
grillgamesh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
I have that. I’ve been unable to figure out any good solutions.
for me, when I exert myself more than just like, a walking pace, I start tasting blood in my throat and tongue; and the more I go, the more nausea I start experiencing. its really quite annoying.
I welcome any tips, btw.
bitteroldcoot@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
“I start tasting blood in my throat and tongue”.
Dude that’s serious shit. Go see a pulmonologist if you don’t want to die.
If you have been to one and are still doing this then go see another one.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
thats very abnormal, that never happens to me, even if i started running or walking incline, and i dont exercise often. see your doctor asap.
Patnou@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
He just wants to do it slow. And the current goal is walk around the block. He has been lifting 3lbs and 500 reps per arm to try to get his breathing controlled. For some reason he got into holding his breath when he lifts like beer cases or kegs. He has no idea why he started it but says it’s very hard to quit. Currently he is walking back and forth on his back porch to start small. He would like to be able to walk or at the minimum fast walk 2 miles in three months.
bitteroldcoot@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
That kind of low lung capacity does not need an amateur answer. It needs a professional evaluation by a doctor and rehabilitation with a physical therapist.
Other wise he is going to end up in the emergency room….. if he is lucky.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
if he ways like hundreds of lbs and never exercised before it will happen like that, they also shouldnt be doing that intense of exercise if they weight that much. probably see a doc, and then a personal trainer who deals really large people.
dingus@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I don’t think this is a thing that can be solved with breathing exercises. His heart and lungs are struggling to keep up with his excess weight. Weight lifting doesn’t really help with cardiac fitness. It’s good that he wants to strength train, but it’s unlikely to help his breathing.
He needs several things:
I am very glad he is trying to better himself and wish him the best of luck.