Not since 2010. I wiil ask my doc about it during my next appointment in April.

Thanks for posting, Katie. When I worked in pulmonary rehab, this test would often cause some anxiety to those who would get breathless when moving around. It's a great test to rule out the need for oxygen with exertion and measure a person's level of fitness.

Been a few years. This last pulmo visit we decided that I am not doing any pfts anymore my lungs are so bad that I probably can't even blow in the test. Also better I think for peace of mind.

Several years ago, I was working on a project to help determine how exercise was improving the endurance of people living with chronic lung conditions. We used the six-minute walk test a lot to gauge improvement in exercise tolerance. Because we also did these evaluations in people's homes, we had to adopt another test that didn't require such a large walking area. In those instances, we used a little exercise called the 30-second sit-to-stand.

Here's how it works: using a sturdy chair, the individual counts the number of times they can stand up from a sitting position in 30 seconds. You are not supposed to use your hands to push yourself up, but use only your leg muscles. Our hope was that by exercising daily, using medications as directed, etc the person would be able to increase their stand rate over time.

The six-minute walk and the 30-second sit-to-stand are nice little snapshots into how much activity/exercise is benefitting someone.

As always, don't attempt any exercise or activity without talking to your doctor first :)