Treating COPD with Pulmonary Rehab

For individuals suffering with COPD, pulmonary rehab is a great program for helping to build physical fitness and learning techniques to help function with the disease. COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, makes everyday activities such as walking steps very difficult. With pulmonary rehab, exercise programs and breathing techniques can help a person work through the disease in their day-to-day lives.

Exercising & Pulmonary Rehab
For those suffering with COPD, exercising is the most important component of any pulmonary rehab program. The exercises offered during pulmonary rehab are aimed to improve physical fitness, and some centers will actually only focus an exercise program.

As you can imagine, lower-body exercises are very important during the rehab process. Depending on the patient and the severity of the condition, there are several options to improve leg strength. Some individuals will walk on a track or a treadmill to help improve leg strength, but others will participate in stair climbing activities. Since improving breathing activities are also important, upper-body exercises are crucial to improved results. Strength training is viewed as a key component of pulmonary rehab, and the correct program will help build endurance and increase muscle strength.

Education for COPD
While many people will suffer with COPD throughout their life, the right education in a pulmonary rehab program will help people have a better handle on their disease. With the right education, individuals in a pulmonary rehab program can learn about oxygen therapy, how to properly use inhalers and creating a better understanding of medication treatments. Also, it’s important for an individual suffering with COPD to learn the importance of healthy diet and the need to stop smoking.

Improving COPD with Pulmonary Rehab
While pulmonary rehab does not make any promises to completely cure COPD, it can help to improve quality of life. Participants of pulmonary rehab can become more active, while not feeling the same level of restraints before rehab. The right program can help create more energy, improve shortness of breath and just help the afflicted individual to have better control over their disease. These positive effects can quickly be short lived, however, if the individual does not keep up with an exercise regime.

If you believe you are a candidate for Pulmonary Rehab or would like more information, the friendly staff of Life Fitness Physical Therapy can work with you on creating a custom program. The longer you wait to improve physical ailments, the more your body will suffer down the road. Call today at 410-368-1026, or schedule an appointment online.

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