Pulmonary rehabilitation

Pulmonary rehabilitation is a service that aims to improve breathlessness, exercise tolerance and overall quality of life for individuals with a long term respiratory condition.

Breathlessness can be a symptom of a long-term lung condition, it can be uncomfortable, scary and make you not want to exercise. This can lead to the viscous cycle of inactivity, thus impacting on your daily life and well-being.

Pulmonary rehabilitation can be the first step to breaking that cycle with expert support from a team of physiotherapists and occupational therapists, with guidance in line with the standards from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

What is pulmonary rehabilitation?

Pulmonary rehabilitation is a seven-week programme consisting of 14 structured exercise sessions to improve your breathlessness under the supervision of a specialist therapy team.

Each session consists of 60 minutes exercise tailored to your ability and up to 30 minutes of education related to your respiratory condition. Exercise consists of both endurance and resistance-based exercises.

The exercises are designed for people with a range of respiratory conditions including COPD, bronchiectasis, interstitial lung disease (ILD), lung transplant and asthma.

How would pulmonary rehabilitation benefit me?

Enhance the knowledge and understanding of your respiratory condition along with symptom management
Improve your strength and fitness
Help to effectively manage your breathlessness and improve both physical and mental well-being
Improve knowledge of inhaled medication

Vicious cycle of inactivity - you do less, your muscles become weaker, you feel breathless, you avoid those activities that make you breathless... — Avoiding activities leads to weaker muscles, therefore increasing muscles effort and increased breathlessness.

Positive cycle of activity - you do more activity to help your breathlessness, muscles become stronger and use oxygen more efficiently, tasks become easier, you feel better, you're motivated to continue being active... — The vicious cycle of inactivity can be broken, and pulmonary rehabilitation is one of the first steps to breaking the cycle.

Benefits of pulmonary rehabilitation

Improve health related quality of life
Improve mental well-being
Increase confidence
Improve respiratory muscle strength
Decrease exercise related breathlessness
Understand and manage your condition effectively
Reduce chest infections
Reduce risks of hospital admissions

Why is pulmonary education so important? Below are links to the education we deliver in our sessions. The education topic marked with * is a topic we do not discuss as a group; this may be to personal or not relevant to yourself however we do have information relating to these topics in leaflet form but also by clicking the relevant links below highlighted in blue. Pulmonary rehabilitation education topics are an informative way to allow you to understand and self-manage your respiratory condition.