Exercise training is widely regarded as the cornerstone of rehabilitation for people with respiratory conditions. It is focused on keeping a person as healthy as possible.
Exercise training is designed to:
1. Reduce Symptoms ie Breathlessness and fatigue
2. Optimise Functional Status
3. Increase Participation and independence
4. Stabilise and/or reduce manifestations of the respiratory condition 5. Provide strategies for life-long management
6. Improve quality of life
7. May assist in clearing secretions
Deconditioning and decreased exercise tolerance/fitness levels due to inactivity, mainly caused by breathlessness are a major impairment of respiratory conditions. The breathlessness leads to increased fear of exertion and avoidance of activity.
The respiratory Physiotherapist will provide you with the motivation, reassurance and encouragement to increase your exercise tolerance.
The physiotherapist through their background in exercise prescription and evidence based practice will achieve this by:
- Providing an individualized structured programme
- Setting personal priorities
- Establishing goals
- Creating treatment plans
- Solving problems along the way
Individualised exercise prescription includes:
- Aerobic training
- Resistance training
- Intensity
- Frequency
- Duration
- Type
- Mode
- Progression
- Considerations will be given to the patient’s previous lifestyle, home facilities, co-morbidities and safety issues.
Patient outcomes may include:
- Improved exercise capacity
- Improved breathlessness
- Improved Quality of life
- Reduced exacerbations and hospital admissions