How to Increase Your Lung Capacity

Many sports in today's action-packed world require you to use a vast amount of air
in order to be successful. While there are ways to increase the size of your lungs,
there are also many ways to increase the amount of air taken in by your lungs, and
the efficiency with which they capture oxygen. Practice these exercises daily, and
you are bound to see an increase in your lung capacity.
Method 1 of 3: Increasing Lung Capacity Quickly

1. Breathe deeply. You can increase the amount of air your lungs can absorb in a short
amount of time, without a long-term investment in exercise or training equipment. The trick
is breathing steadily and deeply.

Exhale completely and slowly. Practice it a few times before you start. Don't let any air
linger in your lungs. This allows you to inhale more air on the next breath.

Allow your diaphragm to descend by keeping your abdominal muscles relaxed. Your
abdomen will expand as your diaphragm descends, making more room around your
lungs, and allowing them to fill with air.

Widen your arms, holding them farther away from your body, to help open up your chest.

2. Inhale a deep breath. You probably want to fill your lungs to about 80%-85% capacity,
to give your body room to relax. You do not want to fill your lungs to full capacity if it means
that your muscles tighten up and you're uncomfortable.

Have a friend with you, monitoring your breathing, if possible. You could pass out, in
which case you'd want your friend to respond appropriately.

You don't need to puff your cheeks out. You want the muscles in your face to be loose and
relaxed. The muscles in your stomach and diaphragm are going to be the ones working.

3. Splash water on your face. Do this while you're holding your breath. Scientists have
figured out that splashing water on your face accelerates bradycardia, or the slowing of the heart
rate, or the first phase of the mammalian diving reflex.

Your body is preparing to dive underwater, where it will need to regulate its heart beat
effectively and pass oxygen throughout the blood in order to keep you alive.

Try to keep the water cold, but not icy. Icy water will trigger another reflex in your body
that causes you to hyperventilate, or try to breathe quickly. Hyperventilation will hurt
your ability to hold your breath for a long time.

4. Relax your muscles and hold your breath. Try meditating, or closing your eyes.
The less energy you expend, the longer your body will be able to hold its breath.

Set an online metronome to 120 bpm.

Breathing from your diaphragm (stomach), inhale for eight counts.

Do two sets of holding two and inhaling while still holding your breath. You might try
this step with inhaling through your nose.

5. Hold for 4 counts and then do the opposite on the way down: 8 counts
exhale, 2 count hold, exhale, 2 count hold, exhale.

After 3-4 times, your lungs will be able to hold much more air than they could just twenty
minutes beforehand.

Practicing this exercise regularly will also help train your lungs in the long term. Try
lowering the metronome's bpm by three or four counts each week.

Make sure you don't lower the metronome too much or else you'll hurt your lungs. Just
like exercising, you want to take this at a gradual and regular rate.

6. Try simple breathing exercises. You can do these exercises around the house, at
your office, hanging out while watching TV, the list goes on.[1]

Blowing balloons is a good method for increasing lung capacity. While you're walking, at
home doing chores, or have a spare second, practice blowing up a balloon and letting it
deflate. Do this over and over again; you should notice your lungs' ability to pump more
air, stronger and longer.

Another method is to tape a long, light slip of paper (or a tissue) to the tip of your nose
and try to keep it in the air by blowing it as long as possible. Time yourself and if you
practice this, exercise regularly, you will be able to keep your slip of paper in the air
much longer thus, increasing lung capacity.

Breathing exercises during everyday activities can be helpful. Breathe in for 2-20
seconds, breathe out for 10-20 seconds, and slowly increase the rate. Soon you will find
yourself breathing out 45 seconds-2 minutes if you practice enough! You can easily do it
while driving, sitting in the office, watching television, playing video games, doing
paperwork, at the desk at school, or when you are simply bored!

Try hyperventilating before holding your breath. Hyperventilating simply means

breathing in and out very quickly. Note: hyperventilating before diving can be dangerous
because the urge to breathe can be delayed beyond the point where you pass out!

Method 2 of 3: Increasing Lung Capacity with Physical Exercises

1. Exercise in water. Exercising in water will add an element of resistance training to

your regimen. Your body will have to work overtime to supply enough oxygen into your
blood, making for a good lung workout.[2]

Develop a normal stretching and weight lifting routine out of the water. Make sure that
you compensate for the fact that weights will feel lighter when you have the water around
you. Practice this routine for a few days until you are comfortable with everything.

Take it to the water. Submerge yourself up to your neck, and do the exercises while in the
water. This may not seem like it is doing anything to help you at all, but don't worry. Due
to the blood shifting into your chest cavity and the compression on your body, you will
have to take shorter, quicker breaths when exercising in the water. Research shows that
your air capacity will be cut by up to 75% during this time, and your body will try to
compensate for that. If your exercise in the water lasts long enough, and you do it
regularly, your respiratory system will become more efficient, increasing your lung
capacity.

2. Participate in rigorous cardiovascular activities. Exercising is a great way

to increase lung capacity. For at least 30 minutes, push your body to exhaustion so that
your lungs are working hard. This hard work will pay off in better lung capacity.[3]

Try aerobics. It can surprising how much lung capacity you can develop doing short
bursts of intense training.

Do cycling. Pepper your route with elevated climbs. Going up hills means your body
needs to pump more blood to your legs; your lungs supply the oxygen to the blood.[4]

Go running. Run on a padded track or treadmill to be kind to your knees and joints. Mix
in sprints to make sure your lungs are working extra hard.

Swimming - The best sport to improve on your cardiovascular fitness. At their peak,
swimmers' lungs will use oxygen three times more efficiently than an average person.

3.

Work out at high-elevation. Working out at higher elevations is a surefire way to

boost your lung strength. Higher elevation air contains less oxygen, making the workout
tougher, but ultimately more rewarding, on your lungs.[5]

If you're serious about increasing your lung capacity, live in high altitude for the duration
of your training. At 8,000 ft (2,500 m) above sea level, the oxygen content in the air is
only 74%[6] of what it is at sea level. This means your lungs have to work harder to get as
much oxygen out into your blood.

When you travel back down to lower-elevation, your body still has increased levels of red
blood cells and hemoglobin for up to two weeks which means that your overall
lung capacity is increased.

Be careful not to train too hard at high elevation, as you could develop altitude sickness.

Method 3 of 3: Increasing Lung Capacity with Long-Term Exercises

1 Create resistance. Your lungs will respond to training, so get some resistance training in
your routine and watch your lung capacity increase.[7]

Breathe in normally through your nose. Take deep breaths. Breathe out through your
mouth with your lips still close together. Open them just slightly so a little bit of air can
get out, and with resistance. Try and do this as often as possible. It makes the sacs in your
lungs more used to having to hold air longer, stretching them out.

2 Breathe in more than your brain thinks you can. Your brain, of course, looks
out for the safety of your body, and is averse to stretching the body's limits. But the body can do
amazing things when the brain is persuaded that everything is okay. Make sure you try this.

For eight counts, breathe until your lungs are totally full. After each count you should be
able to breathe in more.

For the next eight to sixteen counts, take small sips of air. Feel your belly expanding. You
shouldn't feel your shoulders moving.

Hold your breath for a few seconds and release forcefully.

After you feel "empty," make a "tssssss" sound for as long as possible. (This is called
tizzling, and it mimics the resistance of playing a wind instrument.)

Practice this periodically. When you train your brain to stretch the body's limits, your
breathing intake will spike.

3 Play a wind instrument. Playing a wind instrument is a great way to give your lungs a
regular workout and have fun making music in the balance.

Learn how to play a woodwind or brass instrument such as a bassoon, tuba, trumpet,
trombone, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, or flute. This activity will help you control
breathing and expand your lung capacity to utilize all the alveoli.

Play in a marching band or a Drum and Bugle Corps. This activity requires more and
more lung capacity utilization for your movement and playing and is quite healthy.

You can also learn how to sing. Singing really works the diaphragm, and can aid in
continuous breathing exercises. Singers, of course, need to have really strong lungs.