Many BLF supporters and Breathe Easy members with lung disease have expressed how exercise, in the form of pulmonary rehabilitation, has been 
the most life-changing treatment they have been offered. Clinical trials have shown that pulmonary rehabilitation can improve exercise capacity, self-esteem and independence, and reduce breathlessness. A course typically lasts for up to 12 weeks and once complete individuals often find there is no provision for people with lung conditions to continue exercising. In order to satisfy the need for follow on exercise classes specifically tailored to people with lung disease the BLF created BLF Active.
BLF Active is a scheme set up by the British Lung Foundation with funding from Air Products to encourage fitness instructors to gain a qualification in chronic respiratory disease exercise.
BLF Active is the result of a six month pilot project in which 225 people were involved in exercise in 10 different locations across England. Results were overwhelmingly positive, showing improvements in people’s ability to walk further, as well as being less depressed and anxious. People involved in the pilot say they are now more active and that it has given them much more confidence.
The British Lung Foundation is offering 51 fitness instructors per year a bursary to take the Chronic Respiratory Disease Exercise Instructor Course at Loughborough College as a distance learning qualification. Qualified instructors are then expected to set up classes within their local community in order to increase access to exercise classes for people living with a lung condition. Where there is a Breathe Easy group near the fitness instructor, they will work with them to set up a class. The classes themselves involve exercise in a structured manner tailored to individual ability.
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