The Woolcock Institute of Medical Research

Come the New Year and many of us will be setting resolutions to eat better, lose weight, move more and be healthier. But summer’s heat and humidity can leave you breathless and make exercise feel more challenging, especially if you are living with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), or other respiratory conditions.

Exercise physiologists emphasise that while warm weather poses additional challenges, regular physical activity remains one of the most effective ways to improve respiratory health, manage weight, and enhance overall wellbeing. The key is understanding how to modify exercise safely during hot conditions.

Consistent physical activity strengthens respiratory muscles, improves cardiovascular efficiency, and enhances oxygen uptake, which supports better symptom control. Maintaining a healthy weight can reduce pressure on the lungs and chest wall, helping the body breathe more efficiently and making everyday activities easier.

But exercising on a hot day puts the body under extra stress. Your heart and lungs have to work harder to regulate heat. Breathing rates increase, airways can become irritated and dehydration may make mucus thicker and more difficult to clear. For those with sensitive airways, poor air quality or high pollen levels can further aggravate symptoms.

So, how do you build exercise into your life in the summer heat?

• Exercise in the early morning or late evening. Avoid the midday sun, when temperatures and UV levels peak and on extra-hot days move you workout indoors – at a gym, pool or at home.
• Monitor air quality and pollen levels and reschedule your exercise or move indoors accordingly.
• Remember to pace yourself, starting gently and slowly increasing the length and intensity of your workouts. Interval-based training, alternating light and moderate intensity, reduces respiratory strain.
• Drink water before, during, and after activity. Dehydration thickens mucus in the airways, making breathing more difficult.
• Follow your management plan. Use prescribed preventer medications, keep your reliever inhaler close, and warm up and cool down gently.
• Incorporate breathing control techniques like pursed-lip or diaphragmatic breathing which improves oxygen exchange and helps manage breathlessness.

It’s important to focus on consistency, not intensity and work around the heat and humidity because maintaining an active routine brings measurable benefits: improved lung function, better symptom management, and enhanced quality of life.

And, maintaining a healthy weight has direct benefits for respiratory conditions. For individuals with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), even modest weight loss can reduce airway obstruction, improve sleep quality, and decrease daytime fatigue. In asthma and COPD, weight reduction lowers the work of breathing, reduces breathlessness during activity, and improves overall exercise tolerance. Combined with regular, well-planned exercise, weight management supports cardiovascular health, enhances lung function, and contributes to long-term symptom control – making physical activity safer and more effective, even in hot or high-pollen conditions.

Exercise physiologists recommend that anyone with a chronic respiratory condition seek professional guidance before starting or changing their exercise routine. A programme can then be tailored to individual symptoms, medication use and environmental triggers, informed by the latest clinical research and can. That way you can achieve your goals, keep your New Year’s resolution on track and manage your health and fitness safely – in any kind of weather.

Find out more

• Our Weight Loss and Endocrinology Experts in the Woolcock Clinic
• Weight Loss Services at the Woolcock Clinic