4. Breathing techniques for moving or lifting

Here are some breathing techniques that can help you manage your breathlessness
when you're moving or lifting things or exerting yourself.

Try all of them and see which one works best for you.

The first technique we're going to talk about is the Blow as you go breathing technique.

This is where you breathe in before you make the effort and you breathe out whilst you're making the effort.

An example is when you're using stairs.

So take a nice deep breath in and as you step up, breathe out.

If you find the stairs too difficult to go up all at once, you can go a few steps at a time and if it helps you can also lean into a wall or the banister as you recover your breathing and then you can start stepping again.

Another technique is the Paced breathing technique.

This is where you count to yourself as you walk or you move.

For example, you might breathe in for one step and then take either one or two steps as you breathe out.

You can take more steps as you breathe in or as you breathe out if it feels better for you, like two steps in two steps out.

The next one we will talk about is the Pursed lips breathing technique.

This is where you breathe in gently through your nose, then you purse your lips as though
you're going to blow out a candle.

Blow the air out of your lungs with your lips in this pursed position.

You breathe the air out only for as long as is comfortable and you don't force your lungs to empty.

This is a technique that can help you when you're moving around and this may just be in your early days of COVID recovery when you're trying to get to the bathroom or when you're carrying items or lifting things.