Guest guest Posted May 16, 2009 Report Share Posted May 16, 2009 Sharon No, I'm referring to two separate things. I use the treadmill, but I do breathing exercises in addition to that and on the days I don't use the treadmill. For me it's using the incentive spirometer and using the muscle exerciser that I forget the exact name of at the moment. However, it could be deep breathing or other exercises you might learn in rehab. The main thing is that we develop poor breathing habits. This is why the incentive spirometer is used so much after surgery too. After surgery of most kinds, breathing deeply is a little painful so without doing it intentionally we just breathe more shallow. That is one of the biggest causes of pneumonia immediately after surgery. My first use of an incentive spirometer was long before my PF diagnosis. I had to use one starting immediately after my colon resection. Everyone who has PFT's and feels totally drained after, thats the deepest fullest breathing any of us ever does. Now, while it is beyond what we want to do on a daily basis, it does show our full capability under extreme effort. Think of this. Let's say you show up at 70% on the PFT's. That's breathing that hard. What percent of that are you using on your average day. Well, we can't increase the capacity, but through exercise and effort we can maximize our use of our existing lung capacity. > > > > Bruce, are there any guidelines for using the spirometer on a regular > basis, such as daily, number of exercies, e. g., ten, twenty, etc per > day? > > > > I want to get the most benefit from what I'm doing but I don't know > how many inhales are enough or too much. > > > > Thanks. > > Jack > > 79/IPF - UIP/dx06/05 Maine > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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