Hi, since you said you have asthma and had a few episodes of it recently there are chances that there is spasm of your muscles around the chest and abdominals. You can try laying on your stomach and going into extension with your arms behind the back...This will stretch our all the front muscles that might have got over used due to coughing or improper breathing or poor posture Do it if you are able to breathe fine in the above position You can also try lifting both arms up and breathing in deeply until you feel your chest expanded and relaxing down the arms whole breathing out. Thus will help you tremendously I can send you pictures of the above exercises