Combining Aerobic Exercise and Yoga Enhances Lung Function in Individuals with Asthma

Studies have found that yoga and breath control techniques, combined with aerobic training, are highly beneficial exercises for individuals living with asthma who wish to enhance their lung function.

Research highlights the significance of including appropriate exercise training methods into strategies for controlling asthma.

Results demonstrate just how effective specific forms of exercise can be at improving lung function in those living with asthma.

Combining breathing training with yoga and aerobic workouts may prove especially effective in providing additional options for effective treatment strategies.

Now more than ever before, larger, randomized controlled studies must be conducted in order to assess the benefits of exercise for those living with asthma.

Asthma is a chronic lung disorder affecting over 339 million individuals globally and may result in symptoms including chest tightening, shortness of breath, wheezing and coughing.

Exercise was once seen as a risk factor for those living with asthma, as it was believed to trigger or exacerbate acute asthma attacks. More recent research has demonstrated, however, that regular physical activity can actually improve respiratory function and capacity to exercise; yet various therapies employed within existing studies make comparing their efficacy difficult.

To investigate this problem, the researchers performed a meta-analysis, allowing them to compare results from multiple studies in one analysis in order to assess how various forms of exercises affect lung function among asthmatics.

Analysis was performed on 28 studies involving 2,155 asthmatic individuals that evaluated the impact of yoga training, relaxation training, aerobic training and breath training on lung function; plus breath training combined with aerobic training.

All five exercise treatments were found to have greater efficacy at improving lung function measurements compared to conventional rehabilitation treatment in improving lung function in comparison with control groups. According to this research study:

Yoga training, relaxation training, aerobic training, breath training and breathing combined with aerobic training all produced improvements in Forced Expiratory Volume levels and Peak Expiratory Flow rates.
Yoga training, breath training, aerobic training and breathing combined with aerobic training all contributed to greater Forced Vital Capacity levels. Yoga training, aerobic training and breath training all increased Forced Expiratory Volume/Forced Vital Capacity ratio.
A statistical method was also utilized to rank the impact of various exercise interventions against each other. Relaxation training had the highest impact in improving Forced Expiratory Volume levels; breathing combined with aerobic exercise provided greater improvement of Forced Vital Capacity; while yoga training proved most successful at increasing Peak Expiratory Flow levels.

Certain limitations to the study could have had an impact on its results, including inherent variability among studies included in this review and variations in frequency and intensity details of exercises performed by study participants. Also, most people in this research were under 60 years old so their responses might differ when exercising alongside an older population.

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