I've just recently joined this site and am beginning to exercise again but have a question for those of you with asthma. I am newly diagnosed and not sure how to handle this while getting in shape. My main exercise is bike riding but I am going to be adding some home videos for bad-weather days. I get short of breath very easily, but I don't know how to determine whether it is my asthma or just being out of shape. My doctor wasn't much help. :confused:

Thanks for your thoughts.

I don't have any experience with asthma so I can't really offer any advice. I do know that exercising with asthma is possible (there are olympic athletes who have it and win gold medals).

However, I was concerned that you said your doctor was not helpful in answering your questions. It sounds like you should get a new doctor. Any doctor who does not take the time to listen to your questions and provide you with the basic information about the disease he just diagnosed you with should not be pratcicing medicine. If you can't get a new doctor, push him harder the next time you visit to give you the information you need.

Good luck, I'm sure there are others on this board who have asthma and exercise.

I have athsma too. I have had it since I was in my teens and have been able to excersise and keep it under control. The first thing is how severe is youre athsma? I have always been able to control mine without medication but that is not usually the case. My mom is much worse and has to take all kinds of medication to control hers. I also sugest you find a dr who can give you advice. You should start slow and work up to long didtances\routines. When you start to get out of breath it means youre cells are not getting enough oxygen and muscles need it to work at their best. This is true wether you have athsma or not. I always rest and catch my breath and then continue on with the excersise when I am breathing comfortably again. Several short excersise sessinons a day is just as good as one long one, mabey even better. Whatever you do don't let youre athsma stop you from keeping in shape. When I was thinner I could run and do lots of other things even with athsma. Less weight means less body to provide oxygen for and more stamina.
Hope this helps.