How Jurgen maintains his fitness levels while suffering from a respiratory problem

April 11, 2023

Jurgen is a 56-year-old German who works as a General Manager in a computer company. Besides the family he spends his spare time actively, by playing higher level team tennis in a senior league, golf, skiing or cycling. In December 2020, he got unexpectedly diagnosed with AAT*, which raises risk for the lungs to get easily damaged, which can lead to COPD.

“I feel it’s getting worse. I must do something against that”

The profile

Name: Jurgen

Age: 56

Family status: Married, has a son, dog and cat

Occupation: General Manager

Hobbies: Tennis, golf, skiing, cycling

Condition: Protein deficiency that raises the risk for lung sickness leading to COPD (AAT*)

Shocking blood test result

Since childhood, Jurgen had some troubles with his lungs and felt shortage of breath when playing tennis. He always wanted to win the short balls, as the long ones would make him tired. The doctors suspected he had Asthma, but the real problem was discovered in 2020 when he got diagnosed with AAT. He was really shocked. But having a self-disciplined mentality, he decided to fight it!

“When I have a cold, the recovery takes longer. It can have an impact on my lungs and my mental thinking, so I have to get going and do something against it”

Implementing Airofit into daily routine

It didn’t take Jurgen long to invest in his health and he started to train his breathing muscles in January 2021. His target was “not to get worse”. Jurgen has been training with Airofit for 2 years now and implemented the training in his morning routine, right before he walks the dog. He likes Airofit because it tells him what to do and he doesn’t need to think about it.

Jurgen started his breathing journey at 3.5L of accessible lung capacity and reached more than 6L in a year. That’s an impressive result.

“It took me 4 months of consistent training to reach the plateau. The data shows an improvement in both respiratory strength and accessible lung capacity.”

Even though the results show the plateau, they also show further improvement with consistent training.

The effect of breath training in daily life

According to Jurgen, Airofit helps him to maintain his fitness level. He can keep up with his friends and doesn’t get exhausted so easily. Jurgen states that sometimes, he uses Airofit hyperventilation or power exercise before walking on the court, just to get the lungs prepared. Even though he needs to take a bit longer recovery breaks, Jurgen says:

“I feel that I can still play good tennis and I’m very satisfied. Airofit is very important for me to maintain the level as good as possible for as long as possible.”

Furthermore, Jurgen is now aware that he can do anything and Airofit serves him as a mental support tool to gain the confidence.