PODCAST - 5 Lessons I Learned Training with Asthma
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[00:00:00] Today on the show, we're keeping it simple. I'm gonna share ~with you ~the top five lessons ~that ~I've learned over the years. Training with asthma. ~Now throughout my life, my now ~throughout my life, my athletic focus has changed. ~When I was a kid, I was, ~when I was a kid, I was obsessed with soccer,~ right?~
And when I was told at four years old that, 'cause I had asthma, I wouldn't be able to play soccer. I was devastated.~ And I figured out a way to train and actually play soccer for the rest of my life, or at least. ~And I figured out a way to train to play soccer for as long as I could. ~Then I became, then I became a big, ~then I became a big cyclist because my dad has always been a big cyclist, and we would ride bikes together and he would tell me about these amazing 50, 60, 70, 80, a hundred mile rides that he would do, and that excited me and I wanted to do that.
I became a mountain biker. Because I like taking the bike off road and being in nature, ~being in the wilderness to connect even more with the earth. ~See animals be ~out there ~in a ~much ~more natural environment. ~I become a huge fitness. I've become a huge fitness. ~I've become obsessed with fitness, high intensity interval training, yoga, sculpt, just yoga [00:01:00] flow.
And ultimately, as you may know me as I am an elite ultra runner with asthma, and that's ~kind of ~where I am today. But throughout the years, I've gone through ~a lot of ~different versions of myself as an athlete with asthma, and I'm excited to share ~with you ~the lessons ~that ~I've learned along the way with you today
Welcome to the Athlete with Asthma Show. I'm your host Johnny Ha, an ultra runner endurance athlete, and yes, a guy who's had an inhaler prescribed since birth. Despite doctors telling me I could never play soccer nor run a marathon, let alone a hundred K ultra. I prove them all wrong. This show is where I share everything I've learned from breathing techniques to mindset shifts to help you become the athlete and the person you truly want to be.
So if you're ready to achieve your goals, despite limitations, [00:02:00] let's get started.
~lesson, one exercise.~
Lesson one exercise is my superpower.
~It's crazy because ~when I was a kid, I was told ~that ~exercise would be the hardest thing I'd do in my life.~ It'd be something that I always struggled through. It would be something ~I'd always have to have my inhaler with me, not just with me, because you should always have your inhaler with you no matter what.
Exercise, not an exercise. Always have your inhaler with you, but I'd have to use it every time. I'd have to use it before, during, and after, but exercise. Has become my superpower because it has empowered me to naturally strengthen my lungs, and I wish [00:03:00] that for you as well. Now, I'm not a healthcare professional.
I'm not a scientist. I'm not a medical worker,~ so I high, so I have a disclaimer in the show notes. So I highly recommend that you consult with your doctor. So I highly recommend that you, ~so I highly recommend you consult with your doctor, your healthcare specialist, and have a disclaimer in the show notes below as well.
But exercise has been a superpower for me. Exercise has given me strength. It's given my lung strength, it's given me confidence it has made me who I am today. This is lesson one. ~If I had followed what my healthcare professional told me, what the first healthcare, what my doctor told me when I was a kid, I don't think I would've played soccer.~
~I would not have played it at a high level, and I would've been over and over using my inhaler. My lungs would've never gotten stronger, and there's no way in, and there's no way I would've ever become an ultra runner. No way. ~Now I run ~a ~hundred K Ultras ~and ~compete and actually win them, and I never touch my inhaler, and that's really because lesson number two is
I learned to train with progressive [00:04:00] overload. ~So what is progressive overload? Well, progressive overload.~ You can apply it to anything, but really it's when you progressively increase what you're doing. ~So ~that could be the intensity, ~it could be the ~distance. ~It could be what I did as a kid, where instead of using my where ~instead of using my inhaler before soccer practices, ~before soccer games, ~I would wait until I actually needed it. ~So instead of getting, so, instead of building a. So ~instead of using my inhaler as a crutch, I gave myself an opportunity to progressively overload my lungs so ~that ~they could get stronger and stronger and stronger.
So what this looked like is I would start a soccer practice, I would not use my inhaler, but I'd have it with me. I'd have it in my pocket. And after five, 10 minutes of practice, if I felt asthmatic symptoms coming on, I would take some puffs in my inhaler. ~Okay.~ Then the next practice, I would try and wait a little longer.
~Okay. Maybe ~instead of five to 10 minutes, I'd wait 10 to 15 minutes, and then over time, over a matter of weeks, months, years,~ I got to a point where I didn't even need to take.~ I got to a point where my lungs were strong enough where I didn't ~even ~need ~to use ~my inhaler. Now I'd still have it with me, and I'd find that if [00:05:00] I'm sick or ~if I'm ~eating ~some ~dairy ~or something else, ~some ~sort of ~substance or environmental factor.
That causes more inflammation in my body and may cause some asthmatic symptoms to come up, then I may need my inhaler, and that's why I always have it with me. But I progressively overloaded my lungs over the years in order to do what I'm able to do today. It wasn't just me waking up one morning and being able to run a hundred kilometers or more.
No, I progressively have overloaded not just my lungs, but my entire body. Going from back in 2021, never really running more than four to six miles at a time, to running 60 plus miles at a time. ~Okay? That took me tens.~ It took me 10,000 plus miles on my legs and on my lungs to get to this point. It's all progressive overload.
You can do the same thing. This empowers you. To have strong, powerful lungs, ~but~
progressive overload [00:06:00] empowers you to do anything in life. You could do this with other goals ~as well ~outside of exercise goals, outside of developing your lungs, ~but this could be progressively reading. This could be progressively. ~This could be progressively getting better at cooking, ~right? ~You just slowly try more and more complicated recipes,~ right?~
This could be progressively getting better at work, just becoming more and more efficient. Progressive overload is the key to ~you and your life, ~overcoming ~your perceived ~limitations and becoming the athlete and ~the ~person ~that ~you ~truly ~want to be. ~Okay.~
~Now. ~Another example with running is, let's say you've never ran before. Well, I always recommend to anyone who hasn't ran before to start by walking and to start by walking a mile, then walk two miles, walk three miles. Then if you wanna start integrating running, once you feel like you're okay with it, what you can do is walk, run.
So you can start by, ~you know, ~walking a little bit, warming up, and then try running for a 10th ~of a mile ~or a quarter mile, then walk, then [00:07:00] run, then walk, then run, and then progressively. As you do this more and more, you increase the amount of time that you're running versus walking ~to the, to the point where you get,~ then eventually you'll get to a point where you'll be running a full mile, a full two miles, a full three miles to this day when I'm hitting a new distance.
I walk part of the run, ~and when I'm racing, there are times in my race that I'm walking every ultra runner that is out there, ~every elite ultra runner walks at some point in their race. ~Maybe it's because there's more elevation in an area. ~Maybe it's because they're in an area that has a lot more vertical feet or ~a lot more elevation gain, and ~they need to ~walk and ~bring their heart rate down.
~Or maybe, ~or maybe they're walking because we need to eat and you're still moving forward and we're fueling ourselves. But walking is part of running, part of becoming an ~elite ultra runner or any type of ~elite runner ~or any type of runner. So make sure. Okay, so ~if you wanna become a runner, I highly recommend you start by walking and then integrating, running here and there, and then building it up to where you are running a full mile, two miles ~and a five, 10, a five, ~and then a 5K, 10 K, half marathon, marathon, and beyond.
Hey, friend, I wanted to take a [00:08:00] moment to ask you a quick question. Are you struggling to lose weight due to your asthma? If so, I get it. I used to run marathons and still kept gaining weight. It wasn't until I learned about the three pillars of healthy living that everything changed,
so I put together a healthy living guide that you can access absolutely free by clicking the link in the description. This guide shares these amazing three pillars of healthy living that you can easily integrate into your life to start losing weight and live healthier today. Click the link in the description or go to.
Athlete with [00:09:00] asthma.com/healthy-living-guide to grab your free copy. Now let's get back to the rest of the show.
Lesson three, audible exhales.
Are a superpower.
Someone trolled me on the channel recently where they're like, Hey, you need to cite your sources on. Here's the thing, just Google this. Put this in the chat. CPT. ~Put this in the gr. ~Put this into your favorite search engine or fact checker, ~audible. Exhale, strong, audible, exhales, loud, ~audible exhales. The louder your audible exhale, the more efficient your body is with ~your ~energy output.
It's just how it goes. And I've seen this over and over in my life. There's [00:10:00] multiple reasons for it. ~But ~for me, ~what I've learned is ~this empowers me not only to increase my energy output, but to manage my asthma. So when I'm running, when I played soccer, when I hike, when I bike, when I focus on powerful audible exhales and making them loud, I'm pushing more CO2 out of my body.
I'm ~also ~opening my lungs ~up ~to receive oxygen. ~Okay? It also, ~the sound allows my brain to focus on something other than the discomfort ~that I'm feeling ~in my body. ~I. Okay. ~It ~literally gives your body, ~gives your brain a sound to focus on so that you can center yourself loud. Audible exhales has empowered me to not only win ultra races where I was chasing down ~the second place mail.~
The future Second place Mail. He is at first place at this time, and I got into the zone with my ~loud ~audible exhales while listening to one of my favorite [00:11:00] songs. ~And I was so in the Zone. Well, he was, you know. Well, he was struggling. Okay. ~I caught him seven miles from the finish line of a hundred K race, ~and I was so in the zone, ~and I was in the zone for the rest of the race.
I was ~a machine ~focusing on my audible exhales. ~Okay. I've done that and ~I've ~also been able to beat. And I have also ~been able to beat road bikers to the top of this hill by my house by focusing on my audible exhale. I'm running, they're road biking. I've been able to catch ~them ~and beat them. ~And the side benefit here is ~it freaks everyone out ~when ~when you pass them and you're breathing like this, 'cause it's intimidating, but it is actually working~ there.~
~It it. ~It is a superpower. It increases your energy output, ~it allows you to focus on something, and it helps me manage my asthma, and it helps me manage my asthma, okay, ~and ~it ~helps me manage my asthma. Number four, I have learned that what I eat has a direct impact on my asthma, so food equals asthma symptoms or lack of asthma symptoms. What I found over the years, and this also ~kind of ~came about because I have various food [00:12:00] allergies ~and ~growing up I had ~a severe allergic reaction. I had many ~severe allergic reactions to peanuts. I've had reactions to dairy where I ~just ~feel more mucus in my system.
I've ~had. I have ~felt the inflammatory effects of ~having ~alcohol where there's ~just ~more inflammation in my body, ~and what I've found is when I focus on eating. What I found is ~when I focus on eating foods that don't create inflammation, my asthma symptoms feel better. ~All of this stuff feels better, ~exercise feels better.
Progressive overload. I'm able to do better. My audible exhales are better. ~Okay? I have also found that ~when I focus on eating foods that are anti-inflammatory, I feel even better. ~Okay?~ So food has a direct impact on ~me and ~my asthma symptoms. ~So what I've done is. I have a whole episode about it. Where, so what I've done is I, ~so what I've done is I've decreased foods that are inflammatory in my diet, and I have highly increased foods that are anti-inflammatory, and I've gotten some amazing results in my training.
~Now, ~when it comes to allergies and sensitivities, there are ~specific ~foods that are technically. Inflammatory and ~there are specific foods that are technically ~anti-inflammatory, but you may have an allergy or ~a ~sensitivity that [00:13:00] changes this. For example, ~last year, for example, I was taking a run, for example, there was this one time I was taking, for example, last year ~I was taking a run and I had just had some asparagus before the run.
~Okay. And ~as I got ~deeper and ~deeper into the run, I started feeling asthma symptoms, come on. I was breaking out. My face was swelling up ~and I was like, oh my God. ~All of a sudden I'm allergic to asparagus. I figured this out 'cause ~about ~a week later I had some asparagus again. Same thing happened. Asparagus is technically an anti-inflammatory food. ~So you need to be careful and ~check with your healthcare professional and figure out, hey, even though there's a baseline of foods that are fried.
Alcohol, sugar, these things are gonna create inflammation in your body. That's the baseline. Those are inflammatory foods ~and ~foods like broccoli, spinach, arugula, fruits and vegetables are ~gonna be ~anti-inflammatory, ~so you should eat those. ~Doesn't mean that there might be a specific food that has a different impact on you and your body. Lesson four. I have learned that food directly impacts how I feel on a day-to-day basis and my asthma symptoms. ~Okay?~ And less than five. [00:14:00] Consistency
is key. So consistency with all of this is key. Consistent exercise ~I. Consistently, ~progressively overloading, always aiming to be better, to get better. If we take a break, you know, a week off from working out, maybe starting a little lower, but we always are working to get better. ~Okay. Co. ~Consistently using my loud, audible exhales, and then consistently eating anti-inflammatory foods ~and, ~and avoiding inflammatory foods.
But really. What I really mean here with consistency is ~what I find, okay,~
~and the deeper thing here. Is that ~I find ~that ~if I take time off from exercising, which I rarely do, but if I take a week off or a month off, ~I don't think, I hope I never have to take a month off from exercising. Knock on wood. I haven't had to. Okay. 'cause there's always a spec. 'cause there's always a way that you can exercise, you can figure it out.~
~But what I have found that ~even when I take a little bit of time off, a couple days [00:15:00] off when I'm sick ~from exercising. ~I'll feel asthma symptoms come on. ~Okay. ~If I take a couple days off and ~I ~eat ~some dairy or a lot of ~dairy ~or something, ~or something inflammatory, I feel more mucus ~coming ~and ~I feel ~the impact on my lungs.
So consistency in doing all of these things, consistency in your training, consistency in these things, in managing your asthma. It's key. To becoming an elite person, an athlete with asthma now. So bonus for spending time with me. ~I have a gift now. ~I have a gift for you ~for spending this time with me today. It is ~my three pillars of Healthy Living Guide. ~Now, I created these three pillars to really just help. Now I three. Now, ~I created these three pillars ~of healthy living ~to empower you to live a healthier life.
If ~maybe ~you weigh ~a little ~more than you wish you did, it's gonna empower you to take control of your weight and not only lose it, but keep it off. I actually weighed about 40 pounds overweight ~back ~in 2022. I was a runner at the time. I was still doing what I'm doing now, ~not as. ~I definitely wasn't as elite as I am now, ~but I was running, I was working out, and ~I needed ~these ~[00:16:00] three pillars of healthy living to change my life ~and help me ~lose 40 pounds, keep it off, and ~just ~live healthier.
So the three pillars are movement. So exercise, it's pillar number one, which ~consistency ~is ~part of that ~consistent exercise or movement. Pillar number two is tracking, so actually keeping track of these things,~ right. ~Tracking our food, making sure that we are eating anti-inflammatory foods. Avoiding inflammatory foods.
And the third pillar is accountability. ~So working with someone. ~So working with someone that can help you stay accountable for your goals, for what you're tracking, for your purpose. ~Okay? ~My three pillars of healthy living, I teach you step by step how to integrate them into your life. It's gonna take you less than two minutes to read.
~You can grab it. And you can grab the guide. ~You can grab my guide in the show notes ~below, ~or go to www.athletewithasthma.com/healthy-living-guide to grab your free copy today and I'll see you in the next episode.
Thanks for tuning in to the Athlete with [00:17:00] Asthma Show. I hope today's episode inspired you to overcome any perceived limitations you may have. Remember, your health and wellness journey isn't about perfection. I. It is about progress. So I invite you to take a small step right now towards your goals, and if you found something helpful here, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share the podcast with others on a similar path.
Until next time, keep challenging yourself and redefining what's possible.
