How You Can Boost Your Lung Capacity?
It has been known that one indication for long life is the person’s lung capacity and this stands for more than 20 years. The bigger the lungs you have, the longer you will live according to studies. What is used in health profession in measuring lung capacity accurately is called a spirometer. For this reason, there are a lot of people who are undergoing spirometry test to know how big their lung is.
Average human’s lungs can hold around 5 liters of air but this will vary depending on the age, sex, degree of physical activity, height and weight. Females have a tendency to have 20 to 25 percent lower capacity compared to males and taller people tend to have bigger capacity compared to shorter people. What’s unfortunate is that, the capacity for lungs can’t be physically increased, but there are many ways on how you could improve your lung’s efficiency and at the same time, prevent volume loss as you start to age.
Following are some tricks on how you can get it done.
Number 1. Cardio exercise – one great way to increase lung capacity is doing regular exercise. By working out which uses big muscles of the body in rhythmic motions, anyone can improve the capacity of their lungs. Moving consistently can increase oxygen demand and for that, the rate of breathing as well. What this does is, challenging the heart as well as the lungs, which then increases the lung’s capacity for work.
Number 2. Breathing exercises – paying attention to your breathing and practicing some lung exercises are sure to improve your overall wellbeing and lung capacity. Proper breathing like what you could learn in yoga restores inner calmness and concentration whenever you feel angry, anxious or stressed. Doing breathing techniques are powerful tool in regards to calming your nervous system, relieve insomnia, lessen or even stop pain or slow your heartbeat. Several other breathing exercises to increase lung capacity include coughing and breathe holding. The concept here is to inhale slowly and deeply and hold your breath for at least 5 to 10 seconds.
Then after, gently cough upon exhalation. Number 3. Play musical instruments – being able to know how to play some brass or wind musical instruments similar to trumpet, tuba, clarinet, trombone or flute create a positive effect on your lungs. This can work by helping you to know how to control your breathing and at the same time, expand your lung capacity to use all alveoli. Playing with proper diaphragm breathing techniques are guaranteed to increase it further. Additionally, singing is a great way to get the same results.