PODCAST - How I exercise with asthma
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[00:00:00] Welcome to The Athlete with Asthma Show. I'm your host, Johnny Havey, 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 100K ultra, I proved 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, let's get started.
Today on the show, I'm gonna share with you what I've discovered from 30-plus years of exercising with asthma. Over the years, I've come up with a really strong game plan that I can take to doing any sort of exercise, ranging from playing sports, like my [00:01:00] favorite sport growing up, soccer, to playing tennis today, all the way up to running 100-kilometer ultramarathon.
These five tips you can easily integrate into your exercise routine, and maybe you haven't started exercising yet since you've gotten your asthma diagnosis. Well, these tips will help you get started with that as well. Now, I'm not a healthcare professional. I am an athlete with asthma. Therefore, I recommend that you always talk with and consult with a healthcare professional when integrating different things into your life, especially when you have asthma or any other sort of medical condition.
I have a disclaimer in the show notes and in the YouTube description. All right, well, let's get started, and let's get started very simply because it can be overwhelming when you look at exercise, and you haven't done it for a long time, or you're doing it for the first time since being diagnosed with asthma.
And really, it just starts with setting ourselves up [00:02:00] for success with baby steps, and the first one is really just being prepared with your inhaler Water Electrolytes And a snack This is what you really should have with you whenever you're exercising in any way. Now, depending on what kind of workout you're doing or what kind of exercise you're doing, you may need more or less of these things.
But when we look at this, it's a no-brainer that you need to have your inhaler with you. Now, I'm gonna share with you a little later on in this episode how I have interacted with my inhaler over the years, and how I've used it as a tool to help me get stronger and help me build my lungs with how I use it.
Because what I found is that when I used my inhaler too much, it actually hurt me in my progression in the exercises that I've been doing. [00:03:00] When I first got the diagnosis, I used my inhaler all the time, and what I found is the more I used it, the more I needed it. Because what was happening was my lungs weren't getting the opportunity to grow and to strengthen themselves, 'cause they were relying on the inhaler.
So I'm gonna share with you how I went from using my inhaler throughout soccer practices, throughout games, to having to come out of games and soccer practices because of my asthma, all the way to running 100-kilometer ultramarathon without using my inhaler. Next, you wanna make sure that you have water with you.
Staying hydrated is extremely important, and it protects you no matter if you have asthma or not when you're working out. When you're working out and we're putting more pressure on the body, and dehydration can really affect your asthma. And, what happens is these things compound, so if you're dehydrated and you have asthma, that is a lot harder on your body than if you're just [00:04:00] dehydrated.
Being dehydrated in general isn't good, and it could really lead to some major challenges. But having water with you is extremely important. People have always looked at me and said, "Why do you always have a water bottle with you no matter if you're working out or not?" Well, I always have a water bottle with me because I like to stay hydrated, because I need it.
And when you're looking at hydration, there's different ways to look at how much you should be drinking on a daily basis, and you can over-drink water as well. Now, most people aren't getting enough water. Now, when we look at water, though, especially when we are looking at increasing the volume of our workouts, we also need to make sure that we are taking in electrolytes.
Now, when I'm running 100-kilometer ultramarathon, I need a lot more water and a lot more electrolytes and salt than I do when I go to the gym and I jump on a row machine for 20, 30 minutes. But [00:05:00] electrolytes are what helps your body retain water. In addition, electrolytes support your body and its metabolic functions.
So when you're working out and you're sweating a bunch, you're actually sweating out a lot of these minerals and different things that your body- needs, these nutrients that your bodies needs, these electrolytes that your body needs to function. So what you wanna do is you wanna make sure that you're not only having water with you, but electrolytes as well.
And then lastly, I highly recommend that you have access to a snack. Now, depending on what kind of exercise you're doing, you may need more than a snack. I remember growing up playing soccer, I'd always eat something before the games, and then throughout the games, I had access to electrolytes and water, and halftime our parents would bring fruit, or even later on in college when I played intramural, and even later on in college, we would make sure we had fruit to take in.
Now, when I'm running 100-kilometer ultramarathon [00:06:00] or even when I'm running a marathon, half marathon, whatever it is, I make sure to take in 300 to 500 calories per hour. This could look like a snack. This could look like adding a super high carb powder into my water in addition to electrolytes. And really, what I find, 'cause for me, when I get deeper into ultramarathons, after I get to mile 35 to 40, I find it really hard to chew and keep taking in calories normally.
So what I do is I drink them instead. So that's been really useful to me over the years. The point here is we wanna set ourselves up for success before we even start exercising, 'cause our bodies need support. When we're younger, they, quote-unquote, "may feel like they need less support," but really, when we're younger, we just have other people making sure that we have the support, making sure that we have the orange slices at half, making sure that [00:07:00] we have our Gatorade or I'd drink something else that had less added sugar growing up as my sports hydration drink, making sure that we have water, making sure that we have our inhaler.
Now, it is up to you, no matter if you're a 30-something-year-old ultramarathon athlete like me or if you're a kid who's just been diagnosed with asthma. I highly recommend that you make sure you have these things with you when you go and work out. The second I do when working out with asthma is I always, always start slow.
People look at me funny at the gym or when I'm taking a run or when I'm in a workout class because I start very slow. And when I say start slow, obviously, when you're running, that means speed
But when [00:08:00] you are lifting That means light. And when you're playing a sport, that means making sure that you warm up. I started playing tennis in the past year, and what I learned is that every tennis player that knows what they're doing warms up the same way. I had no idea. The first time I was out there with my good friend from high school, he was taking me through all this stuff, and we just started hitting the ball back and forth really close to each other, you know, five, six, seven feet away from the net on each side.
We're just hitting it back and forth, forehands, backhands, and we did that for five or 10 minutes. I'm like, "Okay, cool," you know. "All right." And then we backed up. And then, yet again, forehands, backhands. We did that for another five or 10 minutes. I'm like, "Okay, cool. Cool, I'm [00:09:00] learning," you know. "He's teaching me how to do these things.
This is great. I really appreciate this." And then he was like, "Now we're gonna do net work." I'm like, "Okay, I don't know what that is, but, yeah, thanks for teaching me." So what happened next is he told me to get close to the net, at closest a racket-length distance from the net. Then he had me back up maybe, uh, one or two more steps, and then he would hit the ball at me, and he wanted me to volley it to him.
And I'm like, "Cool, I'm learning how to hit the ball at the net, spike it. This is really cool. This is really fun." Then he's like, "Now we're gonna do aerial work." And I'm like, "Don't know what that is, but let's go for it." So then he had me kind of back up a little bit and he showed me that when the ball is hit high, you point at it, and then you hit it.
I'm like, "Great." And we did that a few times. After that, I'm like, "Okay, well, pro- we're, we're probably about done." And he's like, "All right, now we're gonna do serves." Great. So we back up, and I did serves on one side, serves on the other side. And he's like, "All right, we're gonna play a game now." I'm like, "Sweet."
So we played a game. I'm like, "This is really fun. I [00:10:00] wanna do this again next week." So I show up again the next week, and we do it all over again. Well, now, fast-forward a year later, this is the same routine that we go through every single time we play. And I've actually played with other people now that aren't my friend Shane, and when I've played with them, it's the same thing.
So when we're looking at starting slow, it doesn't just apply to asthma. It really applies to everything. And I think that we can take it for granted that when we're growing up, our coaches always have us warm up. We do a light jog before we start running. We are told to warm up our muscles with the bar or with lighter weight before we go big lifting.
And when we're playing sports, we're always put through this warm-up section of practice, which I disliked a lot, 'cause I just wanted to go out [00:11:00] there and start playing the soccer game. And I wanna warm up, but I didn't realize how much this was serving me. And when you're looking at asthma, it serves you even more because what you're doing is when you're starting slow and you're doing these warmups, you're giving your body the opportunity to incrementally build cardiovascular fitness.
Instead of throwing your lungs in the deep end of we're gonna sprint right away or we're gonna lift heavy right away, we're giving our lungs the opportunity to build up strength, and we're warming up our bodies. Because when our muscles, when our different systems in our bodies are able to reach a specific temperature, this is the ideal temperature that our bodies need to be at to perform at the highest level.
This is why the best athletes have their own warmup routines for whatever they do. This is why you and I, when we're looking at exercising with asthma, we need to be kind to ourselves because when you have asthma, exercise can [00:12:00] aggravate it. So when we slowly move into the thing, whatever it is, we're giving our bodies the opportunity and the chance to slowly adapt and move into the workout.
And this brings me to number three, progressive overload. So I've started to touch on this. What progressive overload is is when you and I are looking to work out, we need to progressively, which means slowly, overload our bodies or slowly increase what we are doing. Slowly increase, this is all it says, progressive overload.
We slowly increase the load on our body. This isn't just for asthma, and I had no idea what progressive overload was when I was four years old. I learned [00:13:00] what it is in the past five, six years. But when I was a kid and I first got diagnosed with asthma, the first doctor that told me shared with me that I would need an inhaler for the rest of my life, that I would need to take it before doing any sort of exercise, workout, whatever.
I may even have to take it first thing in the morning. I may even have to take it before I go and walk out the door, before I go to school. I was advised to take it all the time. While I was also advised that I should probably find something else to spend my time doing rather than soccer, there was no way I was gonna be a runner or a biker or any of these things.
I'd have to be careful every single day at recess. While I didn't like this, my parents didn't like it. They probably also didn't like having an unhappy four-year-old that has just been told that the sport that he loves, and I've always been an, a very active person, that I wouldn't be able to do that [00:14:00] anymore.
So what they did is they helped me find some alternative medicine doctors. And I talked to one doctor who shared with me that your inhaler is extremely important, and when you use it right, you can use it as a tool to help you improve your lungs, help you strengthen your lungs. I'm like, "Okay, this is interesting."
And I was like, "Well, how do I do that?" And he shared with me, "You know what, Johnny? The next soccer practice that you go to, I invite you- to instead of taking your inhaler at the beginning of practice like you've been used to doing, take it 5 or 10 minutes in, or take it when you start feeling asthma symptoms come on because we wanna make sure that you don't have a full-on asthma attack, but we also want to challenge our lungs a little bit."
I was like, "Okay, this kinda makes sense. I'm willing to try [00:15:00] anything." So I showed up at soccer practice, and we're doing our warmup, and I found that I could get through 5 or 10 minutes of the warmup without taking my inhaler. Well, that's what I did for the first couple of weeks. Then I was told to increase the time that I waited before taking my inhaler.
Well, ultimately, this led me to being able to do entire soccer practices without taking my inhaler. This took months, and it took consistency. And even when I get sick to this day, I find that at least half the time I need my inhaler. So progressive overload, what I'm sharing with you right now, is not a substitute for your inhaler.
It is a way to strengthen your lungs so you don't have to feel like you always have to rely on your inhaler. But it's very important that you always have your inhaler with you and anything else that your doctor prescribes [00:16:00] to take care of yourself and to save yourself from having a very bad situation with an asthma attack or something else.
So years later, I realized that this philosophy, this strategy, is progressive overload 'cause we're slowly increasing the time that our lungs are relying on themselves instead of our inhaler. And you can do this with anything. If you're looking at training for anything, what we really wanna do is slowly increase the load on our body.
We slowly increase the load on our lungs. We slowly increase the load on all of our muscles and systems. Progressive overload is one of the best ways to train. Now, this does not mean that over time you're gonna go From here all the way to here. If you're listening to this as a podcast, I just drew a line on the board, an arrow from one side to the other.[00:17:00]
And really what I'm illustrating here is this is not a linear journey. Progressive overload, you could take this as a way of every time I go out there and run, I'm gonna run more miles. Every single time I go and lift, I'm gonna add more weight. Every single time I go play tennis, I'm gonna play for an extra half hour.
Every single time I play soccer, I'm gonna add 10, 15 minutes. Every single time I do whatever, I'm going to increase the amount of time that I wait to take my inhaler. This is not how it works. Progressive overload is not a linear journey. It is much more a two steps forward, one step back journey.
Sometimes two steps back. And then we move forward, back, forward, back, forward, back. And we keep doing this as we go towards our [00:18:00] goals. Well, the other thing is we are gonna go through different seasons of life where we're working out more or we're focusing on exercise more. Then other seasons we're resting.
So you may get all the way to here. So now if you're listening to this as a podcast, I've drawn a squiggly line like a lightning bolt. Think of that. And eventually when we take a break, we're gonna drop back here, and then we're gonna keep going forward. Well, that was pretty aggressive. We're gonna keep incrementally going forward again.
So progressive overload doesn't mean just add a little bit each day and you're gonna be able to achieve all your goals. No. And really that's why the next part of all of this is tip number four Take breaks. [00:19:00] This is huge. This is huge no matter what kind of athlete you are, but especially when you're an athlete with asthma.
You need to give yourself permission to take breaks in a couple of different ways. Daily, you need to take breaks. What do I mean by this? I mean in your daily workouts, build in time for breaks. What does this mean for running? This means that you can run at your competition pace, whatever that is, for some of your workout, and then you can jog some of your workout, you can walk some of your workout.
Remember, starting slow, though. We don't wanna start at that competition pace all at once. So I'm talking about taking breaks daily during your workouts. This also means taking breaks during your workout cycles or your training cycles. I build [00:20:00] breaks into my training cycles. And how this looks, I took this from marathon training.
And my favorite way to train for a marathon is we build for three weeks. I call this the build phase of building. And then we drop down for one week Of drop down And then we just take this four-week cycle, three plus one is four, and we times this by at least four. But I've gone up to six times, doing six blocks of three weeks of building and one week of drop-down.
Well, the drop-down week is basically a rest week. You're not completely resting, but you may go from working out five days in a week to only working [00:21:00] out three days in the drop-down week. We need to take breaks in our daily workouts and in our training cycles, and especially when we have asthma, because what this does is it, it gives our bodies the ability to recover.
It gives you the ability to recover without feeling like you have to grab for your inhaler. And say, you're working really hard on a workout, and you feel your asthma symptoms come on. Instead of grabbing for your inhaler and continuing to push, just take a step back. Take a breather. Focus on your breath and rest.
Now, a lot of people talking about focusing on your breath, but when I talk about focusing on your breath, I mean your exhales. Your exhales are the easiest thing to focus on when your body is under stress. At least this is what I find. Focusing on trying to take in a deep breath is a lot more stressful than focusing on pushing out your breath.
And the crazy [00:22:00] thing about it is when you focus on pushing out your breath, you're creating space in your lungs to bring in fresh oxygen. When you focus... Wow, that inhale came from my powerful exhale. Your exhales create your inhales, just like your inhales create your exhales. Inhales are just harder to focus on when you're under stress.
Now, I discovered this when I started climbing 14ers. Throughout my life, I've had ups and downs with my asthma, and whenever I try something new, it flares up because I haven't progressively overloaded my lungs doing that thing yet. Well, the 14ers, which are 14,000-foot mountains, where you probably know that if you have asthma, elevation can really impact your asthma.
It's because there's less oxygen the higher up we go on this world that we live in. So when [00:23:00] I did my first 14er, I discovered that the higher up that I got while climbing the mountain, the harder it was to breathe. And the only way that I could focus on my breath was making the audible noise of these powerful exhales.
So what I started doing is
Just focusing on making the audible sound. This is really important. Audible exhales are the most effective exhales. They actually help our bodies become even more efficient with energy output. And a big part of it is because you can hear it and you can feel it. It gives your mind something to focus on.
So for me, when I got into climbing 14ers, this is about a decade ago now, I learned one of the most powerful tools in my asthma [00:24:00] toolkit. Now I use this to win ultra races. I use this to get back into my body and to take back control of my breath. So I highly recommend when you are working out, when you're doing anything, to focus on your audible exhales.
Start here. Powerful exhales create powerful inhales and they fuel, which fuels your body, fuels your mind, and fuels you as an athlete with asthma. Now, the biggest thing that you and I can do as athletes with asthma are movement, are any activities that empower our body to move. Now, we just have to be a little more careful when we're moving and we have to do it strategically.
We have to start slow. We have to take breaks to progressively overload our body. We have to make sure that we're prepared [00:25:00] with our snacks, our inhaler, our electrolytes, our water, and we have to focus on our breaths. Well, movement is one of the three pillars of healthy living that I share with my clients and I want to share with you in my Three Pillars of Healthy Living guide.
You can grab your free copy in the show notes and in the YouTube description. You can also go to www.athletewithasthma.com forward slash healthy dash living dash guide to start integrating these three pillars of healthy living into your life today. It's only going to take you a couple minutes to read the guide and start being even more healthy than you are now.
I'll see you in the next episode.
Thanks for tuning in to The Athlete With 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, [00:26:00] it's 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
