Your breaths can be short, long, shallow; sometimes they end with a sigh. We rarely ask ourselves whether such breaths are good or bad, whether they actually provide oxygen to our body, whether we actually breathe (sometimes people hold their breath without even knowing it). When discussing physical fitness and health, you will frequently come across the term “lung capacity”. What is it? How to evaluate it?
When we talk about lung capacity, we think about a specific ratio which determines how much air can fit into a person’s lungs. Lungs can actually hold as much as 5 liters of air.
Lung capacity is a metric of your condition. The deeper the breath is (or, the greater the lung capacity), the greater the amount of air gets into the alveoli and the greater the amount of air gets into blood. It is necessary that we learn some terms and how to distinguish them:
- Tidal volume. This is the amount of air that moves in or out of the lungs while at rest. In a healthy adult (around 70 kg) it is approx. 500 ml. The lung capacity of a person who has acquired or congenital diseases, deformities of the thorax and defects of the spine, especially in the thoracic section, may be lower. The lower the amount of oxygen in our body, the more work must be put in by the heart and the lungs to ventilate the body, the tissues, the muscles so that the entire body can work properly.
- Inspiratory reserve volume. You already know how much is the breath capacity (the tidal volume). However, will anything happen if you take a deeper breath? Not really. Lungs are designed to hold the extra air – this is the so-called inspiratory reserve volume. It is not used during everyday breathing because human breath is rather shallow.
- Residual volume. When exhaling, you are able to exceed the lung capacity volume and reserve (i.e. the more shallow and deeper breathing). Human lungs have another ability, which is expiratory reserve volume. That is because lungs are never really empty (residual volume, or in other words the amount of air that remains in a person’s lungs after fully exhaling).
To conclude and to put it simple: it does not matter how much air you inhale. You can exhale even more, and even then your lungs will not be empty.
And here comes the most important thing: Can you improve your lung capacity?
The lung capacity depends on your sex, your age, environmental factors, your health and medical conditions. If you take a good care of your breathing muscles and your intercostal muscles, you will ventilate your body and improve your overall body condition, and that in turn will improve your lifestyle. So the answer is: yes, you can improve your lung capacity through exercising.
Now, before you start exercising. Remember! It doesn’t matter how many times you repeat the exercises and how fast you do them. What matters is regularity and focusing on your breathing and your muscles. You should start with short series and slowly add repetitions. Breathing exercises are not races, do them slowly, focus.
Follow a few simple rules:
- Regularity is the key. Repeat the exercises several times a day.
- Relax before you start exercising so that you avoid unnecessary muscle tension.
- Exercises should last as much as the rest between the individual series.
- Repeat each exercise 4–5 times until you reach 6–8 repetitions.
- Two to three series a day will suffice.
Endurance and breathing exercises to improve lung capacity can be split into static and dynamic exercises. You will get the best results if you combine the two types of exercises.
Exercises to increase your lung capacity
Exercise 1
Pucker or purse your lips as though you were going to whistle. Inhale slowly through your nose until you get the maximum inhale, exhale slowly through your lips. Make your exhale twice as long as your inhale.
Exercise 2
Inhale through your nose for 5 seconds, hold your breath for 3 seconds and then exhale through your mouth for 7 seconds.
Exercise 3
Lie flat on your back and bend your knees, placing your feet flat on the floor. Place a small object (e.g. a book) on your stomach. While inhaling, focus on pushing your stomach upward (keep watching the object on your belly) and do not move your chest – diaphragmatic breathing. To exhale, try to tighten your abdominal muscles and let the stomach fall downward. Take your time.
Exercise 4
Prepare a bottle that is half filled with water. Get a straw and sit comfortably at a table with your equipment. Sit straight, inhale through your nose. Slowly exhale through the straw to the bottle. Try to make your exhale as long as possible. This is resistance breathing which is an effective way to improve fitness. You can also do this exercise in a swimming pool – all you need to do is to exhale under water.
Exercise 5
Prepare a feather. Put your hands on your stomach to control your breathing. While in a standing position, keep blowing at the feather so that it stays above you at all times. If you find this exercise easy, get a ping pong ball and replace one long exhale with a series of short breaths.
Exercise 6
Contrary to appearances, inflating balloons with your own breath is an excellent exercise to improve capacity. Keep in mind that there are different types of balloons. Make sure you find balloons that are hard to inflate with the first breath.
Exercise 7
Stand with your back against a wall, arms held along your torso. As you are inhaling, move your arms above your head (while pressing your back and your arms to the wall). As you are exhaling, slowly move your arms down until you get to the starting position.
Exercise 8
Stand in an upright position with your feet hip-distance apart. As you are inhaling, stand on your tiptoes and spread your arms above your head. As you are exhaling, squat and lower your arms along your torso.
Exercise 9
Stand with your feet slightly apart, bend your elbows, make your hands into fists – like a boxer in a ring. Make boxer punches as fast as you can (keep throwing alternate punches with your right and your left hand) along with loud short exhales.
Exercise 10
Birthdays should be celebrated much more frequently than once a year. Candle blowing is an excellent exercise to improve your lung capacity. You can do it in two ways:
- Keep blowing the candle flame so that your exhale is as long as possible yet you do not blow the candle altogether. Let it flicker.
- Keep blowing the flame until the candle is blown out. Slowly move the candle away from you to make the exercise more difficult.
Exercise 11
All cardio exercises, such as jogging, swimming, biking, etc. are great at improving lung capacity. You can add those exercises to your daily schedule.
Exercise 12
Invest in soap bubbles. It will be both pleasurable and useful.
If you experience symptoms such as nausea, dizziness, chest pain, or trouble breathing while exercising, stop exercising immediately. It is better to do some of these exercises in the evening – it will help you get better sleep quality and relax your body.
Sources:
1. K. Kuziemski, Przewlekła obturacyjna choroba płuc. Poradnik z ćwiczeniami dla chorych, Katedra Pneumonologii i Alergologii Gdańskiego Uniwersytetu Medycznego, 2007.
er. In my spare time, I train boxing and enjoy reading fantasy books.