8 Tips to Help You Stay Active Through the Holidays
Exercise is crucial for people with pulmonary hypertension to help slow down the decline of lung function and to maintain overall health, but over the holidays it can be difficult to find the time. With this in mind, we’ve put together a list of tips to help you find time to exercise throughout the holiday season based on information from prevention.com.
Exercise First Thing
Make it the first thing on your to-do list for the day. Whether you exercise before or after breakfast is up to you, but if you do it first thing in the morning it’s a chore out of the way, leaving the rest of the day free to celebrate the festivities.
If you can’t go outside to exercise, you can try some breathing exercises at home to make your lungs stronger. Find them here.
Exercise With Friends
The holidays are a time for being social and catching up with friends and family, so why not combine that with exercise. Grab some friends and head out for a run or a yoga class, or if you have relatives visiting, why not get them to participate in an exercise DVD with you.
Read more about inhaling, exhaling, and how breathing works.
Make an Exercise Appointment
Your diary may be full of social engagements, so you might need to schedule exercise the same way you’d schedule a doctor’s appointment. Â Treat it as an appointment, though, which means no skipping out!
Have Fun
It’s the holidays, so why do an exercise that bores you. Find something that you like doing or try something new and have fun while exercising. Exercise doesn’t have to be running or swimming, it can be salsa dancing, indoor rock climbing, trampolining…anything that gets you moving.
Positive Attitude
Have a positive attitude towards exercise. Think about the good it’s doing you and how great you’ll feel afterward. Remember that exercise is keeping you strong and healthy.
Do you know how to fight your PH with breathing exercises?
Don’t Be Hard on Yourself
If you’re feeling under the weather or fatigued and really can’t face exercising, or if you’ve only been able to exercise for a half an hour instead of your usual hour, don’t be hard on yourself. Listen to your body–it knows when you need to take a break, so you can come back stronger next time.
If you don’t suffer from PH but you have a friend that does, find out more about how you can support a friend with pulmonary hypertension.
Break Exercise Up
If you’re so busy you can’t schedule in an hour at the gym, no problem. Try doing three 10-minute slots of exercises at home or at the office, or spend 15 minutes twice a day fast walking around wherever you need to be. Try to shoehorn in some exercise into your really busy days whenever you can.
Check out Chloe Temtchine’s tips on how to exercise when you have pulmonary hypertension.
Set Some Holiday Goals
For instance, you have to run so many times over the holidays, nail that tricky yoga asana, or walk so many miles between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Give yourself a reward if you meet your goals.
Pulmonary Hypertension News is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.
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