Healthy riding for asthmatic I have asthma and find it very hard to ride for a very long time without tightness in my chest. Is this safe for me? I have knee pain as well and I find bike riding helps with the knee pain, but asthma is a different story.
I can not give any advice, but I can present my personal story and experience. When I was a child, I was diagnosed with asthma. I needed to take a lot of medications in order to fight against asthma. I stayed also a lot of nights in hospital. At the age of 11, doctors suggested my to try endurance sports. I have chosen cycling. In fact, I really had a lot of problems with breathing in my first two years of cycling career. I needed to take Ventolin (Salbutamol) every training. During the years, situation became much better. After some years of training, I became competitive enough on a national level. In line with this, I have never faced any major problems with asthma again. I am racing now Ironman triathlons without any medications. I only sometimes have problems with breathing when there is a mix of hot and cold weather. Usually, when Autumn is transitioning in Winter I need to take one or two inhalations of Ventolin. Anyway, I also avoid riding in fog.