Chest function exercises you can do at home

Chest infections – whether from bacterial or viral agents, can be improved by maintaining good airway function and an active chest / rib cage and respiratory anatomy.

In the video below are a range of movement and exercise examples to use when sitting – to help someone who is feeling chesty for whatever reason.

The most important aspect is to increase the mobility and flexibility of the whole chest – and so allow the underlying lungs to breathe and drain better during the time it has the infection.

When the lungs get sluggish, more tissue fluid builds up – partly from the agents of the infection and partly as the body tries to fight them off. This means that there is less surface area in the lungs for your body to do its vital gas exchange job.

Sadly no oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange means that person will need a ventilator, and even then there is no guarantee that the lungs will be able to heal quickly enough.

Therefore, ANYTHING YOU CAN DO FOR YOURSELF or with some help from a relative, to tip the odds in your favour is a bonus.

How often to do these exercises?

• At least once a day, when well.

• Hourly if things get bad – BUT they may need to be reduced in intensity / duration (and no breath holding as you won’t be able to anyway!) and done very gently – be guided by the patient.

DO comment below if you have questions or contact Gayle directly.

You can also arrange tele-consultations if need be, if the patient is unable to attend in person. BOOK HERE

There are other respiratory exercises and options with videos on the clinic’s YouTube channel that will be of use. Please SUBSCRIBE to the channel HERE.

© Gayle Palmer March 2020