[Pulmonary obstructive chronic disease and physical exercise]

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a disease that can be prevented and treated, with a pulmonary component and with significant systemic effects that contribute to the severity of clinical manifestations. COPD causes a number of changes, including those which lead to exercise tolerance limitation and to a progressive deterioration of life quality of the patients. Respiratory rehabilitation (RR) represents a key part of the treatment. The benefits of RR are independent of sex, age and disease severity. At the end of the program, the patient should have acquired a life style as independent and healthy as possible. With this article the authors intend to review the benefits of physical exercise in rehabilitation of patients with COPD and the different types of training used in the respiratory rehabilitation program established for each patient.