pulmonary rehab
Breathe Better. Live Stronger
Join the Pulmonary Rehab Hub – Your Path to Easier Breathing Starts Here.
Chronic lung conditions can make everyday life feel exhausting. The Pulmonary Rehab Hub is your dedicated space for support, strength, and strategies to breathe easier and live better.
Pulmonary Rehabilitation is the most effective treatment for breathlessness and reduced exercise tolerance for people with respiratory disease.
Supervised by Rachel (a Ph.D. qualified respiratory physiotherapist with over 30 years in the field of respiratory rehabilitation) you will receive WEEKLY zoom rehab sessions designed to improve strength, exercise tolerance and breathing pattern.
As well as supervised exercise sessions you will receive video; email support and encouragement, breathing exercises and useful internet resources.
Over time, you will will find you are less breathless and can walk further, you will have more confidence and less anxiety and improve your quality of life.
Choose Your Plan and Start Today
Monthly Access – €60/month
Yearly Access - €720/yearly (One month Free!)
The Benefits
There are literally thousands of research trials showing the benefits of pulmonary rehabilitation for people with respiratory disease. More recent research has shown that these benefits extend to online rehabilitation programmes when delivered with expert supervision.
Here are some of the proven benfits of pulmonary rehabilitation:
- Reduced breathlessness whilst performing daily activities
- Increased exercise tolerance and fitness
- Stronger muscles meaning that walking and stair climbing is easier
- Improved function of your respiratory muscles leading to reduced work of breathing
- Reduced anxiety and depression and improved confidence
- Improved quality of life
.
What You’ll Gain
This isn’t just exercise. It’s a comprehensive programme of exercise and education designed for people living with conditions like COPD, pulmonary fibrosis, and asthma. The programme is individualised for you and all exercises will be adapted to your level.
With expert supervison via zoom we will help you breathe easier, move better, and feel more confident in your daily life.
What you will receive
✔️ Weekly Zoom group rehab sessions, supervised by Rachel
✔️ Individualised strength and fitness training
✔️ Tailored breathing exercises to improve breathlessness and strengthen your lungs
✔️ Weekly education on managing your condition (via video and email)
✔️ Emotional and peer support – you’re not alone
✔️ Expert advice on medication and nutrition
Who’s It For?
If you’re living with:
✔️ COPD
✔️ Chronic Bronchitis
✔️ Emphysema
✔️ Chronic Heart Failure
✔️ Pulmonary fibrosis
✔️ Pulmonary Hypertension
✔️ Asthma
✔️ Bronchiectasis
✔️ Recovering from lung surgery or cancer treatment
What if I use Oxygen ?
Being on Oxygen or having severe disease does not mean you are too ill for rehabilitation. All exercises can be adapted according to severity, and all exercises can be performed in a chair if needed. Patients who use Oxygen also show significant benefits in exercise tolerance and breathlessness, as well as those not on Oxygen.
Remember …this programme was created with you in mind.
Because Better Breathing Changes Everything
The Pulmonary Rehab Hub is more than a programme – it’s a lifeline. With the right support, tools, and community, you can reclaim your strength and live with more ease and confidence.
🫁 Ready to take a deep breath and move forward?
👉 Join the Hub Today
Join the Hub Today
Join the Hub Today
Use Discount Code MYLUNGS to Get One Month Free
Quick Links
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Are you fatigued?
If you have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), other respiratory disease, Long COVID or ME/CFM, then you probably also suffer with fatigue. In medicine we describe fatigue as a “sensation of overwhelming tiredness, lack of energy, and feeling of exhaustion that is not relieved by rest and interferes with usual functioning.” Fatigue is a multi-component symptom, one questionnaire, the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI-20) describes subjective fatigue as encompassing five different components; general fatigue, physical fatigue, reduced activity, reduced motivation and mental fatigue, such as having difficulty concentrating.
Many conditions are accompanied by fatigue but it is particularly profound in respiratory disease. There are different reasons for this, the obvious one being a lack of oxygen to the cells, but we now also know that in COPD, and other conditions, the immune system is chronically elevated which causes the “flight or fight” response to remain permanently raised. The damaged lungs release pro-inflammatory cytokines (such as TNF-alpha and Interleukin-6) into the bloodstream. These inflammatory chemicals can cross the blood-brain barrier where they trigger something known as “sickness behavior." This is a coping mechanism - your brain wants to help you heal and it manifests as a profound lack of motivation.
This is all good if the inflammation is short lived (like having a cold that recovers in a week or so) but if the inflammation is chronic and persistent, as it is in COPD, then the “sickness behaviour” can in fact make us sicker.
What can help treat this fatigue? A review paper published last year in Respiratory Medicine by Zhang and colleagues (2025) looked at 35 studies that considered fatigue in COPD and found four things that were effective in significantly reducing it. Pulmonary rehabilitation, aerobic exercise, progressive muscle relaxation and acupressure (although the confidence of this data was lower than the others).
Exercise and pulmonary rehabilitation work by improving the cardiovascular system, building strength in the peripheral and respiratory muscles and helping improve respiratory patterns. Pulmonary rehabilitation is effective for people with high initial levels of fatigue and lower levels and even appears to improve quality of life most in those with high levels of fatigue (Maarten Van Herck et al, 2019).
In one study from my team, we showed improvements in General Fatigue, Physical Fatigue and Reduced Activity after a seven-week pulmonary rehabilitation programme (Lewko et al, 2013). Whilst there were no changes in the Motivation or Mental Fatigue we would argue that seven weeks may be too short a period to achieve change in these areas of fatigue.
In fact, motivation is an interesting concept as we often “wait for the right motivation” to start a new plan or hobby, but motivation is triggered by activity - once we start doing the activity and see results we are more likely to feel motivated to continue.
If you are fatigued, and waiting for the motivation to get started with an exercise programme you’d be better off starting, and perhaps, when the benefits kick in then so will the motivation to continue. Click on the link below to find out more about my online pulmonary rehabilitation programme.
https://betterbreathingphysio.com/pulmonary-rehab-programme/
References
Lewko A, Bidgood PL, Jewell A, Garrod R. Evaluation of multidimensional COPD-related subjective fatigue following a pulmonary rehabilitation programme. Respir Med. 2014 Jan;108(1):95-102. doi: 10.1016/j.rmed.2013.09.003. Epub 2013 Sep 14. PMID: 24084060. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24084060/
Van Herck M, Antons J, Vercoulen JH, Goërtz YMJ, Ebadi Z, Burtin C, Janssen DJA, Thong MSY, Otker J, Coors A, Sprangers MAG, Muris JWM, Prins JB, Spruit MA, Peters JB. Pulmonary Rehabilitation Reduces Subjective Fatigue in COPD: A Responder Analysis. J Clin Med. 2019 Aug 20;8(8):1264
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6722504/
Xiaona Zhang, Jiali Xue, Yan Chang, Rui Zhang, Jie Zhao, Xindan Li, Hongyan Lu, Xirui Jiang, Fang Yu, Pengfei Yang. Non-pharmacological interventions for fatigue in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a systematic review and network meta-analysis,
Respiratory Medicine, Volume 248, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmed.2025.108409.
Do you suffer from fatigue?
If you have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), other respiratory disease, Long COVID or ME/CFM, then you probably also suffer with fatigue. In medicine we describe fatigue as a “sensation of overwhelming tiredness, lack of energy, and feeling of exhaustion that is not relieved by rest and interferes with usual functioning.” Fatigue is a multi-component symptom, one questionnaire, the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI-20) describes subjective fatigue as encompassing five different components; general fatigue, physical fatigue, reduced activity, reduced motivation and mental fatigue, such as having difficulty concentrating.
Many conditions are accompanied by fatigue but it is particularly profound in respiratory disease. There are different reasons for this, the obvious one being a lack of oxygen to the cells, but we now also know that in COPD, and other conditions, the immune system is chronically elevated which causes the “flight or fight” response to remain permanently raised. The damaged lungs release pro-inflammatory cytokines (such as TNF-alpha and Interleukin-6) into the bloodstream. These inflammatory chemicals can cross the blood-brain barrier where they trigger something known as “sickness behavior." This is a coping mechanism - your brain wants to help you heal and it manifests as a profound lack of motivation.
This is all good if the inflammation is short lived (like having a cold that recovers in a week or so) but if the inflammation is chronic and persistent, as it is in COPD, then the “sickness behaviour” can in fact make us sicker.
What can help treat this fatigue? A review paper published last year in Respiratory Medicine by Zhang and colleagues (2025) looked at 35 studies that considered fatigue in COPD and found four things that were effective in significantly reducing it. Pulmonary rehabilitation, aerobic exercise, progressive muscle relaxation and acupressure (although the confidence of this data was lower than the others).
Exercise and pulmonary rehabilitation work by improving the cardiovascular system, building strength in the peripheral and respiratory muscles and helping improve respiratory patterns. Pulmonary rehabilitation is effective for people with high initial levels of fatigue and lower levels and even appears to improve quality of life most in those with high levels of fatigue (Maarten Van Herck et al, 2019).
In one study from my team, we showed improvements in General Fatigue, Physical Fatigue and Reduced Activity after a seven-week pulmonary rehabilitation programme (Lewko et al, 2013). Whilst there were no changes in the Motivation or Mental Fatigue we would argue that seven weeks may be too short a period to achieve change in these areas of fatigue.
In fact, motivation is an interesting concept as we often “wait for the right motivation” to start a new plan or hobby, but motivation is triggered by activity - once we start doing the activity and see results we are more likely to feel motivated to continue.
If you are fatigued, and waiting for the motivation to get started with an exercise programme you’d be better off starting, and perhaps, when the benefits kick in then so will the motivation to continue. Click on the link below to find out more about my online pulmonary rehabilitation programme.
https://betterbreathingphysio.com/pulmonary-rehab-programme/
References
Lewko A, Bidgood PL, Jewell A, Garrod R. Evaluation of multidimensional COPD-related subjective fatigue following a pulmonary rehabilitation programme. Respir Med. 2014 Jan;108(1):95-102. doi: 10.1016/j.rmed.2013.09.003. Epub 2013 Sep 14. PMID: 24084060. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24084060/
Van Herck M, Antons J, Vercoulen JH, Goërtz YMJ, Ebadi Z, Burtin C, Janssen DJA, Thong MSY, Otker J, Coors A, Sprangers MAG, Muris JWM, Prins JB, Spruit MA, Peters JB. Pulmonary Rehabilitation Reduces Subjective Fatigue in COPD: A Responder Analysis. J Clin Med. 2019 Aug 20;8(8):1264
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6722504/
Xiaona Zhang, Jiali Xue, Yan Chang, Rui Zhang, Jie Zhao, Xindan Li, Hongyan Lu, Xirui Jiang, Fang Yu, Pengfei Yang. Non-pharmacological interventions for fatigue in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a systematic review and network meta-analysis,
Respiratory Medicine, Volume 248, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmed.2025.108409.
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If you can't make it. I understand that things come up and sometimes you have to cancel. And that's not mormally a problem. If you let me know the morning of our appointment then that's fine, if the appointment is first thing in the morning you will need to let me...
Pulmonar y Rehab info
Transform your health with Rachel's online pulmonary rehabilitation programme. Pulmonary rehabilitation is the most effective treatment to improve exercise tolerance and breathlessness for people with respiratory disease. Receive weekly supervised pulmonary...
Pulmonary Rehab Hub
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Find answers to common questions about Rachel's physiotherapy services and how she can help you achieve better health.Respiratory Muscle Training (RMT) utilises a gadget that applies resistance either to inhalation, exhalation or both. Think of it as using dumbbells...
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If you have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), other respiratory disease, Long COVID or ME/CFM, then you probably also suffer with fatigue. In medicine we describe fatigue as a “sensation of overwhelming tiredness, lack of energy, and feeling of exhaustion...
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My teenage daughter started to suffer from anxiety which sometimes lead to full blown panic attacks. As a mother this was an awful experience to see her suffering and not knowing exactly how best to deal with the breathing and how to slow it down. I heard Rachel one...
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Discover how my specialised programs can help you achieve better breathing and well-being. Join for unlimited access to the online resources and community with exercises and information to help you to breathe better.Telephone: +34 699 501 190 Nationality: British...
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Linda Vista Baja, Calle Los Eucaliptos 77, San Pedro, Marbella, Spain 29670