3 Tips to Improve Your Next Breathing Treatment
The goal of breathing treatments is to maintain and/or improve lung function, increase mucociliary clearance, improve quality of life and improve overall breathing. Breathing treatments often last 20-30 minutes per treatment and 1-3 times per day, depending on who the person is. This takes time out of an individual’s day and adds up over the week. Well, what if we could boost how much you get out of these treatments? What if we could help you improve your next treatment? We can’t guarantee anything, however; we have put together 3 strategies that we have given to our pulmonary clients that have helped them improve their approach to their treatments.
Treatment goals are to help you improve your ability to breathe, right? Well, let’s look at how we can help you target that and possibly improve your quality of life and breathing mechanics.
Number 1: Posture
Your posture directly affects your breathing mechanics. The human body is a fascinating organism. Our bodies are built to do amazing things however, when our body does the same thing over and over again it adapts and can alter our posture. This isn’t a bad thing if you’re are training for a particular goal however, it can directly affect your breathing mechanics if you do not allow your brain to enrich its self with other postures. For example, when you sit at work all day your muscles will adapt to the seated position at which you maintain. That is why it has been recommended to stand up and walk around for a minute every hour when you have a job that is highly sedentary. In the seated position, your hip, neck, and lower back muscles will tighten. These muscles are highly utilized in respiration. When they live in a prolong state of shortening, the brain will tell other muscles to lengthen; hamstrings, glutes, pelvic floor and core muscles, to balance out the adapted seated posture.
This causes imbalances throughout the body and changes your breathing mechanics without you even realizing it. The sitting will cause your head to subtly shift forward, your ribcage to flare up and recruit your lower back, while your neck and chest muscles help low intensity breathing to keep occurring. These muscles are primarily used when we have a higher elevated breathing pattern, so when they are recruited for other jobs, they will become tired and overworked, which causes more tension and stress. Our body’s number one goal is to survive and if we limit its ability to breathe efficiently, it will compensate and use other muscles, such as the neck, chest and lower back muscles to drive your respiration. This can carry over to your breathing treatments and you may not even realize it.
Here is a posture strategy for your next treatment:
Sit up right, with your ribcage subtly tucked down and your knees at a 90-degree angle under a 2-inch block. Sit in this position for as long as you feel comfortable throughout your treatment.
If you have something to squeeze, 
place it between your knees and subtly squeeze to increase core activation.
Number 2: Hydration
The adult human body is made up of over 60% of water. The brain and heart are composed of 73% water, the lungs are comprised of about 83% water, and our muscles are comprised of around 79% of water. Now if we are dehydrated, our brain isn’t going to be as efficient at operating and at sending signals to the lungs and muscles for respiration. This could then change our physiological chemistry, making it more difficult to breathe. When something becomes more difficult to accomplish, there is an added stress that is placed upon it to survive.
This could decrease our energy levels and make us have to work even harder to breathe, all just because we are dehydrated. We always recommend drinking water throughout the day, from the moment you get up, to 30 minutes before you go to bed. Try having a glass of water 30 minutes before your next treatment. It could help hydrate your brain, lungs, and muscles and keeping your organs hydrated allows them to function at a higher output.
Number 3: Warm Up
When we exercise, we have been taught to perform a 5-10 minute warm up before our workout of the day. The goal of these warm ups is intended to help improve blood flow to our muscles,increase our tissue extensibility, and get our respiration on par for what we are about to accomplish. This same idea and concept can be used for your next treatment. Think of your breathing treatment as if it was your exercise workout for the day. When you breathe in and out, some of your muscles have to contract and shorten, while others have to relax and lengthen. 
When these muscles haven’t been properly warmed up, they may not contract or relax like they would if they were warm. Now, if you perform a couple of your favorite upper and lower body exercises before your treatment, you could put your muscles in a better position to contract and relax to improve your breathing during your treatment. Picking exercises that focus on breathing and muscle tissue stretching are always the best bet. Your muscles connect to your bones and your ribcage is a big component in getting air into the lungs. If you focus on warming up the muscles around your upper body and ribcage, you can get higher quality of ribcage expansion, increasing oxygen consumption and utilization.
We have a great library of exercises and mini warm up routines you can use before your next treatment. Go to our YouTube channel, Cystic Fibrosis Fitness Institute, for more options.
Just remember that everyone is different and will need to approach these strategies differently. These are tips that we have seen help our clients fighting a pulmonary disease. You do not have to use them all to be successful. The biggest thing is keeping it consistent. It is better to focus on one tip for a few weeks and see how it goes for you before you move on to the next one. We cannot guarantee instant improvements after your next treatment, but if you apply at least one of these strategies with consistency, we believe it could help you improve your treatments and quality of life overtime.
More From THE Blog
Improving Lung Function Through Strength Training
The diaphragm is an essential skeletal muscle that is chronically active and is among the most aerobically adapted muscles (Ottenheijm et al., 2008). During inspiration, the diaphragm and external intercostal muscles contract, causing the rib cage to expand, moving...
High Intensity Interval Training: Thinking Beyond Speed
Training in short bouts with limited recovery between exercises has shown to produce positive net gains to improvement in overall exercise capacity. The harder you work and the less recovery you have between sets, creates a formula that will push the limits of the...
Muscle Soreness Doesn’t Predict Future Muscle Strength
Exercise training can cause soreness to the muscles, especially when you partake in strenuous exercise. The feeling of muscle soreness that you get when we roll out of bed, can often bring a sense of accomplishment. The muscles were pushed to their...
Stay Away From Foggy Goals
The journey to finding the best training method or philosophy, without first clearly establishing your goal, has the potential to lead to a lifetime of shortcomings. One of the most important you can ever accomplish is clearly defining a measurable and concise goal....
Breaking the Pattern
Human beings are routine and patterned based species. We like things that are predictable and stable. This is because the more routine-based our lives our, the less cognitive activity it takes to complete a task and we preserve more energy as a result. This natural...
The Importance of Key Receptors in the Control of Breathing During Exercise
The primary function of the respiratory system is to provide gas exchange between the atmosphere and cells within the body. This occurs in four continuous and concurrent processes. The first process is pulmonary respiration (ventilation). Pulmonary...
Building Your Cores Foundation is Essential in Pulmonary Conditions
During the inspiration of air, the thoracic cavity expands and there is a decrease in the intrapleural pressure around the lungs in order to allow the lungs to expand. As the lungs expand, the diaphragm contracts, due to the increased transabdominal pressure and...
Neuromuscular Strength in Pulmonary Conditions
There is no mystical aura that engulfs the gym that gives individuals the gift of brute strength, or gives individual’s cardiovascular capacity like Secretariat, the triple crown record-breaking stallion at Belmont Stakes. There are numerous variables that...
Building the Armor: Sit-Ups May Not Be the Answer
Sit-ups and crunches have been the staple-mark core exercises used to build core strength and endurance. They are easy to implement; you don’t need equipment or a lot of space to perform them. But, are they really the most efficient exercises to target core...
Pulmonary Exercise Testing Should Be Goal Oriented
Performance testing can take on many different looks depending on what you are wanting to measure. For example, if you are looking to improve cardiorespiratory efficiency, VO2max testing is typically used. If you are looking to measure speed, you may use a...
Your Exercise Training Should Fit Your Goal
There are many approaches to exercise.; a buffet of options to pick from these days. You have the option of focusing on mobility and range of motion by participating in yoga classes. You can test your exercise capacity by joining a cycling class or by...
High-Intensity Interval Training: Is It Really Worth It?
It was about a year ago when I watched an exercise video a colleague had sent me. The fitness enthusiast filmed a HIIT training workout for their followers. The workout consisted of various lower body weight plyometric based exercises. It had only been a...
The Importance of Cardiopulmonary Testing in Pulmonary Diseases
The primary aim of exercising is to improve quality of life, strength, endurance, and/or movement capabilities. Integrating a resistance and cardiovascular training program into a client’s lifestyle can improve posture, respiration, musculoskeletal strength...
Tips to Build Home Exercise Equipment and Workouts
There has been a flood of exercise content these last few weeks. It is great to see trainers, coaches, and experts in the field of science giving back to the community. There are many ways to exercise and we have seen many different approaches to training. We believe...
Motivating Youth to Workout at Home
Let’s be honest. Motivating youth to do workouts after school or on the weekends can be hard enough, and now not only are doing their workouts at home, but they are also taking their classes online at home! With so much times at home, how do you keep your...
Protect Your Vocal Folds: The Little Muscles That Give you a Voice!
As a Speech Language Pathologist, I have been curious about the impact’s cystic fibrosis, COPD, and other respiratory illnesses have on vocal quality. Having been around the CF community for a couple of years, I know that CF can impact numerous organ systems that...
Cystic Fibrosis at the Playground
Your child has a right to be a kid! Of course, having a child with cystic fibrosis brings on more challenges and worries. It requires being more alert to surroundings, your child, and others. But, your child still deserves to play and you still deserve to watch your...
Complementary Approaches to Clearing Mucus
The clearance of mucus is very important for individuals fighting pulmonary conditions. In cystic fibrosis (CF) and COPD the clearance of mucus is crucial to clearing bacteria pathogens to reduce the decline in lung function. To understand how we can attack the...
Motivating Children/Teens to Exercise
Intrinsic motivation is something that develops over time. Kids don’t yet have the cognitive abilities to grasp the concept that, “exercising is good for physical and mental health.” The understanding that by “doing something good for your body now, your future self...
Reduce Your Stress By Scheduling Your Workouts Through A Bigger Lens
One of the ways people measure their success in the gym each week is by counting how many times they showed up to the gym. For example, 5 days in the gym equals 5 workouts. That is assuming you are only working out once a day. When planning out our weekly schedule,...
Are You Apart of the Morning Crew or Night Crew?
Exercising is important for everyone. Exercising has many benefits from improving cardiovascular health, decreasing stress, to even improving lung function in cystic fibrosis and COPD. However, what is good for us doesn’t mean we will always want to partake in...
Optimizing Recovery for CF and COPD
The body is a remarkable system that takes time to recover. When you have chronic illness, such as CF or COPD, the recovery time the body needs will be a little different than for a healthier individual. This is due to decreased oxygen consumption and...
3-Tips to Programming Strength Training
Strength training can be a powerful tool to daily living. Strength training helps improve respiratory function, muscular strength and endurance and it supports your ability to live with using less effort. The musculoskeletal system moves the body’s joints so that you...
