use of aerobika long term and vest

Ling
I think that for the vest to work, you need to use it daily. It is supposed to loosen mucous in lower lobes. I use nebulizer and aerobika 2x a day.
I usually get mucous out in am and after my husband does chest PT.
Good luck
Marie

We learned from Dr. Harris that upper body strength is very important when it comes to airway clearance. Even some light weight lifting can be helpful for improving strength. I started working with a trainer to help with this.

Regarding the vest, I gave up on my Afflovest as it caused left rib pain even at the lowest levels. In addition, I did not find it remarkably helpful. If it had been I would have continued to use it. What helped me more was working on huff coughing and autogenic drainage.

Everyone has a different experience with their vests. Trust your gut sense!

Thank you Scoop. Good point to work out for the upper body and do weight lifting. Yesterday I read an article on Washingtonpost that some 80, 90 year olds even get benefit from weight lifting, never too late to do it.
Are you going to a gym to do it? What specifically does the trainer ask you to do for your upper body strengthening? I have been using free weight dumbbells at home, after getting sick. In the past I was a gym goer, using weight machines.

Thanks!
Ling

mariegrace,
Thank you so much for sharing your experience.

Ling

Long, I am in the same boat as you. For 4 years now I’ve walked every day, and stayed active every day. But that did nothing for maintaining my upper body strength, and I noticed a significant decrease in muscle strength & mass. I joined Planet Fitness only $25 per month. Open 24/7 I believe, and you can bring a friend with you free. I met with a trainer and told him I needed more upper body strength and he showed me which machines to concentrate on and said if I felt I needed personal training from him we could schedule that. All included in membership price. I love the fact there are thousands of them nationwide if I travel somewhere. I’ve only been 2 times but love it, and will at least go 4 day a week.

I’m sorry it should have been Ling!

For upper body, here are exercises with weights: bent over row, chest press, biceps curls, triceps kickback, seated shoulder press and planks (front, left and right sides).

It's important to get the form correct to stay injury free. After some time of trying on my own, I decided to sign up with a trainer to coach me on form and when to increase weight as I was either too aggressive or not aggressive enough with adding weight. 2x a week with one session on my own. Training place is close to where I live -- location, location, location....There are lots of great online options too, so you can be anywhere!

Trust your gut sense is very true. Listen to your body and pay attention to what it is telling you.
I gave up on using my vest for a few months but came to the realization that indeed it was helping and made all the difference in how I was doing once I "listened" and started using it again. Live and learn!

Hi cwal,
Thank you. How did you do before and how are you doing now? What difference you made in using it?

Ling

The difference I noticed after I started using it again was a gradual lessening of the amount of sputum. I don't have near as much sputum as some people seem to have and no cough, but apparently there was enough kind of "stuck" in my smaller airways that I did not realize was adding up over time. I noticed it was getting harder to breath deeply in my spin class at the gym and it was becoming a chore. It is an intense class anyway, but this was clearly different. After a couple of weeks of using the vest and clearing out some of what seemed to me to be a variety of old crud, my performance and ease of doing the spin class improved and my sputum is now minimal. I'm not quite Lance Armstrong but I can outspin a lot of my classmates my age and younger! Ha-ha! 🙂