TARGET HEART RATE
At age 52, the highest target rate I've selected is 128 beats per minute. I selected 128 beats per minute from the formula: maximum target heart rate = 180 minus your age. This formula is used by some marathon runners with no health problems for training purposes. The formula is designed to give target heart rates that are considered very low for healthy marathoners.
The target heart rate I select now (between 120 and 128 beats per minute) depends on how I feel and the weather. The most important consideration is to select a target heart rate which will cause some shortness of breath but not so much that I become discouraged. My guiding principal remains, "THE HARDER I WORK WHILE WALKING, THE BETTER I FEEL FOR THE REST OF THE DAY"
Some of you who have emphysema perhaps think this "cure" will not work for you because you smoke. I am living testimony that there is hope for you because I continued to smoke for 7&1/2 years of the 8 years (to date) after I was told that I had emphysema.
WALKING HELPED ME QUIT SMOKING
I tried to quit smoking but I couldn't stick with it until I became a frequent walker. In fact, when I quit smoking. I started walking every time I got the urge to smoke. Soon I liked the new way I felt. If you are a smoker with emphysema who wants to save yourself, every time you get an urge to smoke, walk instead. Soon, you will be too tired to think about anything but sleeping. Each time you do this, you will like better the way your body feels upon awakening.
When the weather is bad, I walk inside shopping malls. I prefer to walk outside, however. If I do walk in a mall, I will often go out an exit as a test to see if I can walk in the bad weather. If I can't, I just go back inside and continue walking. I think of this as challenging my lungs.
I prefer to walk in hilly terrain. Whenever I walk up an incline, I slow down to prevent my heart rate from exceeding my target level. Recently, as I've walked down an incline, my heart rate has tended to fall so I've walked faster with larger steps or even jogged a bit to maintain my heart rate at my target level.
The United States government has become quite interested in pulmonary rehabilitation programs and is currently comparing the cost effectivemess to lung reduction surgery. A moratorium on Medicare reimbursements for lung reduction surgery (a rather recent innovative surgery in which the most damaged part of the lung(s) is removed to allow better function of the non-affected portion) has recently been issued until cost benefit analysis has been completed.
I FEEL BETTER
As I continue to exercise daily and not smoke, I feel better, am able to do activities I could not do six months ago and am willing to try to do more and more things that require phyusical activity.
I'm accepting invitations to do things with other people that I would have decl;ined six months ago. For example, recently my brother invited me to join him and my nephew on a trip to a county fair. I accepted and enjoyed the afternoon even though much walking was involved.
ENVIRONMENTAL TOLERANCE
My tolerance to the environment has also greatly improved. High humidity days are now days when I am active. They used to severly curtail my activities. I am also now able to better tolerate higher elevations. Recently, I drove myself over the continental divide thru the Eisenhower tunnel (an 11,200 foot elevation ) without shortness of breath.. A year ago, I used oxygen on the same trip.
Rapidly changing air pressure and the resulting severe weather changes also do not seem to affect me as drastically as a year ago.
The difficulty of breathing colder air has severly hampered my outside activity for several winters. I hope my training will prove to have helped this aspect of my life, also.
Fragrances, odors and smells now barely bother me. Not too long ago, I routinely left areas with strong smells because of shortness of breath. There is a sign at the entrance of the National Jewish Hospital in Denver (a world-class lung disease center) which states, "no perfumes or aftershaves are allowed in the National Jewish Center". I understand totally why that sign is necessary.
The smell of cigarette smoke is even tolerable now if I choose to subject myself to it. Good news on this front is that I recently located the first nonsmoking bar I'm aware of. Patrons informed me of two others; a hopeful trend because they are a result of preference, not legislation.
I received a handicap parking placcard for my vehicle two years ago but haven�t used it once in the past six months. I no longer need it. Whenever and however I can change my behavior back toward normal, I�m thankful to be healthy enough to do it.
Showers no longer cause such severe shortness of breath. This activity used to be very difficult for me. I had to sit down to catch my breath and rest before drying off.
As days go by, more exertion is required to raise my heart rate to a training level. Now I seek out a hill to go up as I attempt to elevate my heart rate. The number of steps I am able to jog on the downhill side of the hills continues to increase.
SPEED INCREASES 50%
For the past two months, I�ve measured my walking speed once a week or so and it has
raised from 2.3 to 3.5 miles per hour. Fewer senior citizen walkers pass me in the malls
now.
My resting heart rate has lowered about 25 beats per minute in the last six months. The slower heartbeat has taken a big load off my heart. It�s my opinion that my lowered heart rate is the main reason I�ve been able, with difficulty, to gain 15 pounds of needed weight. Nourishment that was used for more heartbeats in the past is now used to build muscle.
Coughing as I�m walking raises my heart rate 10-15 beats per minute. It used to take a very long time (maybe 10 minutes) to come back down to the level it was before coughing. Now the recovery time is more like 2-3 minutes. Additionally, I don�t cough as much as I used to.
THE BEST IMPROVEMENTS
The best improvements I feel from my program, however, are hard to measure. They
include feelings of more energy throughout the day, more breathing capacity to do the
physical activities I need to do, more willingness to push myself to try new activities that
require physical exertion, more restful sleep, increased vigor at the beginning of the day
and not being so tired at the end of the day.
About 25% of the adults in the United States still smoke! An excellent support group newsletter (you may request a copy by writing to: Second Wind Newsletter, PO Box 1133, Lomita CA 90717) recently published an article estimating that 15 million people in the US unknowingly have lung disease. The disease for these people has not progressed far enough tor the symptoms to be felt.
These words are the beginning of a book to help others live better with lung disease in the future. Additional information about how those with lung disease feel better after vigorous exercise will also be included. Please drop me a note describing the improvements you feel from using this training method.
I can be reached as follows: Ron Peterson, PO Box 190616, St Louis MO 63119, e-mail
address:
[email protected]
Although the medical experts say that emphysema can�t be cured, I have learned how to live better with it. I hope you understand the opportunity that has been presented to you and that this training program works for you as it did for me. Please copy this information and pass it on to anyone you know that needs hope with a lung or breathing disorder. This information is not protected by copyright and can be freely copied and distributed.
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