Sport and crosstrainer

Question

Since 2 months I train nearly daily for 20 minutes on my cross trainer. Until now I didn’t really exercise all that much because I didn’t like it. Strangely enough I now really start enjoying myself. What is best to improve my condition and my lungs? To have short duration maximal exercises or longer duration medium intensity exercise? I am 40 years old and during my training my heart rate increases to 175 beats per minute. Thank you very much for your answer.

Answer

Thank you for this interesting question. Since a long time we know that exercise offers a lot of advantages to patients with CF. In the first place it will improve your exercise capacity and you will build up muscle. But physical activity also decreases your chance of getting osteoporosis, it gives you better quality of life, increased mobility and a slower rate of decline of lung function.
To answer your question whether to train short and maximal versus long and medium intensity, I would first like to explain ‘aerobic’ and ‘anaerobic’ training. Every form of motion needs energy. Humans consume 3 types of “fuel”: carbohydrates (sugars), fats and proteins. These can be consumed or ‘burned’ with oxygen (aerobic) as well as without oxygen (anaerobic). Which type of ‘metabolism’ or burning is used will depend on the intensity of the exercise.
Aerobic burning or aerobic metabolism (long duration and medium intensity):
- Fuel is consumed with oxygen
- You mainly burn carbohydrates and fat
- It will depend on the amount of oxygen available
Anaerobic burning or anaerobic metabolism (short duration and high intensity):
- Burn or consume fuel without oxygen
- Only carbohydrates are being burned
- This will lead to the production of lactate
Now, for CF patients, what is best: aerobic or anaerobic metabolism? From literature we learn that aerobic training as well as anaerobic training can increase muscle force and exercise capacity in patients with CF. To know what is the ideal training intensity for you, you could go to your CF centre and ask for a maximal exercise test. That test will show what limits your capacity to exercise: heart, muscle mass, or lungs. After discussing this with your doctor or your physiotherapist you can choose the ideal training intensity for you. But ultimately it is really important that you enjoy doing sports: there is a bigger chance that you will continue if you do something you like…. Every type of sport or activity will have positive effects for a patient with CF
B. Vrijsen, M. Vreys, M. Proesmans, L. Dupont, K. De Boeck

24.02.2009