INFOMERCIAL VOICE: My fellow asthmatics! Do you feel like you are doomed to be perpetually awful at anything resembling exercise? So did I! Until I discovered the wonder of *anaerobics!* The hip, new way for you to get that sweet, sweet shot of endorphins, without any of the chest-clutching, lung-squeezing terror of an asthma attack!
Okay in all seriousness, though. Growing up, I sucked at sports. At gym. I hated exercise because any amount of running, jumping or crouching would make me nearly pass out. When I was twelve, I picked up taekwondo, and fought through feeling like I was going to die until I conditioned my lungs enough to get to black belt and national sparring champion.
So I thought.
Since then, I have become disabled. I am no longer able to do taekwondo because I struggle with vertigo, and am a fall risk (which you do NOT want in contact sports). I have been mourning the sport that I loved, and the incredible feeling I got from feeling strong, fast, and unstoppable. Just recently, I started testosterone and decided "Fuck it. All the other hot trans dudes I see go to the gym and get swole and dammit I want to, too." So I picked up weight lifting, first in my apartment, and then at my apartment complex gym. And, in a shock to myself, I was able to do it! No asthma triggering, at all, despite it being five years since I did any amount of movement.
I needed to know why. Why was I able to do this, when walking up the stairs from my car makes me have to stop at the top of the landing, leaning against the wall with my cane like a 75-year-old named Doris after she chased her excitable new puppy around the yard? It was then, after a moment of research, that I learned that martial arts, and taekwondo specifically, rely more on anaerobic processes than aerobic ones.
I'd heard the terms "aerobic" and "anaerobic" before, briefly, back in middle school health class, but it was never elaborated on in any capacity. And, as the other Americans reading this can surely relate to, it was DEFINITELY never taught in gym class. Physical Education was never education, it was just a bunch of running laps, being forced into sports they expected us to already know how to play, and hammering in fatphobia. And this is a SHAME, because had I known this sooner, I would have been able to continue working out and strengthening my body against my disabilities much sooner.
I'm sure you know, but I'll say it anyway - asthma is caused by inflammation in the bronchioles and an increase in mucus production leading to blocked airways. This prevents oxygen from reaching the body. Aerobic exercise is its own personal hell for us asthmatics, because aerobic exercise depends on sending oxygenated blood to the muscles. Anaerobics, on the other hand, convert glucose to energy without oxygen's help. What does this mean? It means doing these things requires minimal oxygen intake.
Now, this isn't to say go pick up karate or weightlifting and expect it to be effortless - I really DID have to condition my lungs to handle the bits of aerobic exercise that are included in martial arts, and I was never able to do Olympic-style sparring because it converts from anaerobic to aerobic when those short bursts of energy become a drawn-out match. But what I hope you take away from this is that you are not incapable. You were wronged by the education system, which is more focused on presidential fitness scores than actually teaching anything. I should not have had to learn this in my mid-twenties, but since I have, I want to share that information.
There is so much ableism in sports, and so much casual ableism towards asthmatics who attempt to exercise. We're not trying, and if we are we aren't trying hard enough, and if we are we must just suck. It's. A. Lie. Asthma is a disability, and others not respecting it does not make this any less true. We shouldn't have to self-advocate constantly, but we do, so this is me doing a little bit of advocating for you. Just to take a bit of the weight off. (And pick it up, and put it back down, and pick it back up, and-)
