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Exercise and CF
Exercise is important for everybody, but there’s solid evidence that exercise helps a lot in the CF community. But not all exercise is enjoyable and not everybody enjoys exercise.
- If you consistently exercise, what type of exercise do you do?
- Do you enjoy exercising? Why or why not?
- Do you feel like it has noticeably beneficial effects on your CF?
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6 Replies
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“More vigorous exercise boosts life quality, lung health with CF” was posted today. It is well known the benefits of exercise is great for pwCF as with all people but the conclusions of an article such as this are flawed by the question ‘which is the chicken and the egg?’ The conclusion made was that those who exercised better had better health and lungs but is it that those with better lungs and health could exercise better. A pwCF with poor health and lungs may be depressed in that they cannot achieve what this article suggests they should. While encouraging the best for our pwCF we need to be compassionate in understanding and awareness when interpreting results such as these.
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I do enjoy exercise, but that’s because I found movement/exercise that I actually like doing. I know a lot of people word CF run and they love it. I tried to get into running and it felt like torture lol. I think it’s important to find what you enjoy and do that. I strength train 3-4 days a week, walk outside when I can, use the indoor bike when I can’t get outside, and enjoy hiking.
I find exercise to be beneficial to my overall physical health with CF but maybe even more so with my mental health. It also works 10x better for me than traditionally prescribed airway clearance methods.
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That’s great that you feel great benefits from exercise compared to regular breathing treatments! When would you say you felt a change?
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I thinks it’s always been that way for me, even as a kid. I still doing my breathing treatments but if I know I’m going to exercise I skip the airway clearance. When I was a kid I’d jump on the trampoline instead when I could!
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Yeah I can understand that! I used to love playing basketball (despite not being good) and working up a lot of mucus out of playing.
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I’m 54 and have exercised my whole life, whether it’s running, swimming, or walking. I once even walk/ran a half mile marathon. I’ve slowed down considerably, however, I do believe there is a definite link to exercise and being able to bounce back from a difficult hospitalization. Even when I’m hospitalized I try my best not to just lay around. I stretch my legs (quads, hamstrings, calf raises). But I don’t do anything upper body related because I don’t want to aggravate my PICC line site (clots are a possibility if this happens). I realize not everyone can exercise vigorously, but it helps to start early when your lungs are younger and healthier.
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