Asthma question

bamba

I suffer a bit from asthma, usually wake up in the night some times a bit wheezy.
Its not normally brought on by physical activity , but some times soon after setting off especially if there's not much of a warm up when the going gets up hill a bit it comes on a bit,ive tried to train my self through it with out having to reach for the inhaler with about 50% success , do you think having a puff before setting off does anything to the airways or just a placebo ? as ive seen others do this too.

Gypsum_Fantastic

I'm a fellow wheezer and I assume you're referring to Ventolin / salbutamol (the blue one)?

A toot on your inhaler will help you out as it's a short acting reliever it'll stop your lungs going into spasm during when you start your ride

bamba

yes the blue ventoline one, thought this was supposed to be a fixer more than a preventer,
tends to have the opposite effect when i know ive not got it with me

clamps81

I usually have a puff on the blue one a little while (30 mins or so) before I start riding. It seems to ease me in a bit better than if I don't bother with it. Not mad keen on the stuff though as it gives me an incredibly dry mouth and sends my heart racing on occasion if I push too hard. And I'll generally forgo it once I've started a ride even if I'm getting really breathless because it doesn't do anything to help that particular issue and just makes my heart go.

Have discovered my asthma is very much excercise induced though it's mostly a matter for me of making sure I use the clenil (brown one) regularly as I discovered when I ran out of it yesterday and tried riding..did not go well.

Huck Finn

Changed from the Clenil about 18 months ago to Seratide and it's way, way better for me.

As for riding, always take Big Blue along and just having it there usually means i don't need it. Also found that warming up slowly on the bike works a treat. While your mates are faffing and fettling pre ride, try riding up and down the car park(Or wherever) for 5 minutes to get the old cardiovascular system going.

If i'm properly and gently warmed up, it doesn't matter how hard it gets after as the asthma won't bother me.

Hope this helps.

acidstrato

my Doctor recommended I use my blue inhaler pre workout, previously i had been using my brown preventer before any workouts but the Doc said that its slow acting compared to the blue one (makes sense i guess)

clamps81

Yeah, I've tried riding with and without using the blue before a ride and TBH it doesn't make a huge difference to me.

The clenil is definitely helping, but I still sort of think my asthma is worse than it should be given the amount of riding I've done over the last four months. Will mention seretide to my asthma clinic people, though they are probably not best pleased with me as I didn't turn up for my last appointment as I was riding.

bamba

ive been out off road for 12miles this afternoon, been to a 45min spinning session at 6 pm, with no problems , now while im sat down doing note i start to feel i bit wheezy ( no pets ) whats that all about ?
another thing ive been noticeably worse since the begining of the year, poss due to riding in freezing conditions ? or a bad dose of flu ?

jonathan914

I always take a puff before a ride as others have said it opens the lungs long enough to get them used to the extra effort .I think my asthma has improved greatly from regular riding.

matt@theforce

When I was getting back into cycling I would always take 1 puff of my ventolin but now I don't bother. I've got fitter and worked out how to control my breathing by how hard I attack the ride and have found the best compromise.

That said I'm permanently on my brown (Salbutamol, I think it is) inhaler which is a steriod based inhaler to act as a muscle builder and preventer.

I can't remember the last time I used my Ventolin but I always carry one with me