team mate has asthma

[Sharla]

Hi

One of my team-mates had a bout recently and lost because of his asthma.

It seems like he often looses fights he might otherwise win due to his asthma.

Apparently he is not allowed to use his inhaler before competition as it is classified as illegal - which I think is a bit daft.

Does anyone have any advice for him. Things he might do with his training or otherwise to help him manage this?

[Scrap]

What type of Asthma

[Sharla]

Sorry Scrap Maybe I should have asked him for more details before posting this - I don't know!

[Sharla]

I asked him and he didn't know! He just said he was diagnosed with asthma when he was 8 and hasn't really seen a doc much about it since. He has a preventer which he says doesn't do much.

Thing is he must be about 24 now so he hasn't had his medication reviewed in very long time - no wonder he has issues! He said he might get it checked out some time.

[md]

Bronchodilator drugs are accepted if they are taken by way of an inhaler and the athlete is registered as asthmatic. To my knowledge it is not against IOC guidelines to take such drugs in this way prior to competition as there are no known performance enhancing effects.

There are different forms of asthma though; the drugs help the physiological symptoms and by way of placebo for the psychological causes of the symptoms. It might be worth asking him if he needs the inhaler during training to ascertain if the cause is purely physiological.

[Sharla]

Thanks MD CC - I'll ask him

[Scrap]

What md says is true, as regards psycological side weve tried a patch over the dominant eye on 5 seperate times with outstanding results, but it n4eeds looking at a bit more. GET IT but interesting.

[AdamGB]

Hi

One of my team-mates had a bout recently and lost because of his asthma.

It seems like he often looses fights he might otherwise win due to his asthma.

Apparently he is not allowed to use his inhaler before competition as it is classified as illegal - which I think is a bit daft.

Does anyone have any advice for him. Things he might do with his training or otherwise to help him manage this?

It's amateur boxing yeah? is it really that hard for him to go to the toilet or something before he fights and use his inhaler?

[Sharla]

It's amateur boxing yeah? is it really that hard for him to go to the toilet or something before he fights and use his inhaler?

I think I'll get a copy of the IOC guidelines MD was referring to hoping it'll say specifically it's allowed. This particular guy is so well behaved if you told him it was illegal to breathe out through his nose when he fought he'd probably go get something to close his own nose shut while he fought.

What md says is true, as regards psycological side weve tried a patch over the dominant eye on 5 seperate times with outstanding results, but it n4eeds looking at a bit more. GET IT but interesting.

He hasn't been at training the same time as me for a few days (he trains earlier) so I haven't had a chance to ask him about whether or not he needs his inhaler to train.

Is this the same sort of thing as the eye patch? Could it be as ingrained in him as his sense of balance/ proprioception?

[Trainer Monkey]

Sharla I have ashtma as well,I found that martial arts meditiation techniques worked,once I found a way to steady my breathing,it was just a matter of rythm

[Sharla]

I can see how yo might have a point there -

The coaches do say he thinks too much before acting and therefore might not get into a rythm - not unlike myself often

I'll mention that to him CC Monkey

[Scrap]

Meditation, Im a big beleiver. Practice it myself have done for the last 35 years. Its an amazing tool ive found for injurys, and can understand the benefits as regards ashtma. I practice TM

[md]

Meditation's great - better than sitting around doing nothing.

Sharla you'll be able to get a pdf article from WADA's site.

[Scrap]

Md, it cant be done, doing nothing

[Sharla]

I practice TM

What does TM stand for Scrap?

Meditation's great - better than sitting around doing nothing.

I'm disgustingly impatient doing any overly spiritual form of yoga or meditation - just because I DO feel like I'm sitting around doing nothing - probably something I should try to persist with a bit more

Sharla you'll be able to get a pdf article from WADA's site.

I found the PDF Thanks CC MD