Sore lungs on longer workouts.

iPete

On longer rides or general workouts I tend to get sore lungs after several hours. When I take deeper breathes my lower lungs feel sore and it makes me want to cough.

Not sure how normal this is. I've looked up Exercise Induced Asthma and it could be that I predominantly breath through my mouth inhaling lots of dry air and or cold air. Exercise also causes a slight post workout cough.

I do 10-16 hours aerobic exercise per week, so I can't imagine the soreness is from lack of use, although most sessions are between 1-2 hours. Its only when I go 3+ hours it causes issues.

Yes a docs appointment is due before anyone suggests but wanted to get a BR consensus.

Headhuunter

I usually cough after heavy exercise. Not so much the ride to work but if I do a club ride at the weekend. It doesn't seem to get worse and after a short while it goes away so I tend to ignore it. I breathe through my mouth on the bike too, I would have thought this was the norm for most people who ride at any kind of intensity. If you had asthma surely you wouldn't be able to ride far as it causes the tubes to your lungs to narrow...

iPete

Yup, asthma I guess would be more obvious if I was having an attack. It is far more subtle, perhaps my diaphragm/lungs are simply aching from several hours of slow deep breathing!

ck101

Sore lungs is an unusual description, most complain of not being able to get a deep breath in or out. Others complain of a cough. The Lungs have no nerve endings so they dont feel pain.

If it is as you describe the pleura could cause this as could the diaphragm. Did you or do you smoke?
The other cause is excercise induced asthma.

iPete

Ck101 wrote:

Sore lungs is an unusual description, most complain of not being able to get a deep breath in or out. Others complain of a cough. The Lungs have no nerve endings so they dont feel pain.

If it is as you describe the pleura could cause this as could the diaphragm. Did you or do you smoke?
The other cause is excercise induced asthma.

Thats a much better description! Does that narrow it down?

And have never smoked.

alex1rob

iPete wrote:

On longer rides or general workouts I tend to get sore lungs after several hours. When I take deeper breathes my lower lungs feel sore and it makes me want to cough.

Not sure how normal this is. I've looked up Exercise Induced Asthma and it could be that I predominantly breath through my mouth inhaling lots of dry air and or cold air. Exercise also causes a slight post workout cough.

I do 10-16 hours aerobic exercise per week, so I can't imagine the soreness is from lack of use, although most sessions are between 1-2 hours. Its only when I go 3+ hours it causes issues.

Yes a docs appointment is due before anyone suggests but wanted to get a BR consensus.

Yes it's normal, based upon my own experiences anyway. I questioned it with the guys I just rode 100 miles with. I said that I get chest pain on deep breaths and can't take a full breath. They both said they too had it and just attributed it to hard long effort.

It could be exercise asthma I suppose, I'd be interested to hear what your GP said. But things that you normally associated with asthma (wheeze) are absent.

My guess is that your respiratory muscles (intercostals) get tired and possibly the awkward position on the bike causes some irritation of the lining of the lungs.

Edit: We are all 25 year old healthy males who all do regular exercise and don't have any medical conditions.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/41778 ... -exercise/

shockedsoshocked

More than likely a big effort has opened up alveoli in your lungs. You very rarely use your maximum lung capacity, so these become stuck together, and are opened when you breathe extremely deeply. Ever coughed after your first race of the season and tasted blood? Or felt like your lungs aren't open after a week off?

iPete

I think you are both on the right track and wanted to check if other people experience this.

It hasn't worried until now as I have the prospect of an Ironman looming and don't want to go into the run with sore lungs. Sounds like a few long efforts in the build up should keep my lungs prepared.

shockedsoshocked

iPete wrote:

I think you are both on the right track and wanted to check if other people experience this.

It hasn't worried until now as I have the prospect of an Ironman looming and don't want to go into the run with sore lungs. Sounds like a few long efforts in the build up should keep my lungs prepared.

It's one of the reasons people do a few hard efforts the day before races, open everything up.

ck101

Sounds like like it could be excercise induced bronchospasm (note I did not say Asthma). Normal reaction and evident in pro's.

cyco2

Ck101 wrote:

Sounds like like it could be excercise induced bronchospasm (note I did not say Asthma). Normal reaction and evident in pro's.

Doing some searching about your comment has led me to believe Bronchospasm is a symptom of Asthma.

So the inhalers for Asthma alleviate the Bronchospasm as well. Like open up the air ways again.?

ck101

Bronchospasm is only considered Asthma when you have a decrease in the amount of air you can exhale in one second FEV1. This has to be a % decrease above X (I can't remember). So you could have a significant bronchospasm that you can feel but not have a diagnosis of asthma.
To get to this point:
Typically you will perform a pulmonary function test and then excercise or inhale a drug that induces bronchospasm. Further pfts will be done and if you show a significant decrease in FEV1 excercise induced asthma may be the diagnosis.

ck101

cyco2 wrote:

Ck101 wrote:

Sounds like like it could be excercise induced bronchospasm (note I did not say Asthma). Normal reaction and evident in pro's.

Doing some searching about your comment has led me to believe Bronchospasm is a symptom of Asthma.

So the inhalers for Asthma alleviate the Bronchospasm as well. Like open up the air ways again.?

When I say normal see above post for clarification. Bronchospasm may not be normal but you may not get a label or diagnosis or even a prescription for meds.
Even top athletes have bronchospasm but not asthma, neither do they take inhalers for this.

I think a good few of the guys I train with get a little wheezy on the hard parts. There is however a fair few ex smokers amongst us even a current one to two.