How to increase lung vital volume: the most effective exercises

Alexander can dive for 70 meters with one breath, hold his breath for more than five minutes. Thanks to training, his vital lung capacity today is more than 7 liters, while an ordinary person has 3-5 liters.

Dr. Alexander Zaikin clearly spoke about the respiratory system, shared the effective exercise “breathing square” and gave useful recommendations to those who had pneumonia.

Does the incidence of acute respiratory viral infections depend on lung capacity?

There is no direct correlation between resistance to viral infections and a large volume of lungs, Alexander Zaykin believes, since the incidence is more dependent on the contagiousness (contagiousness) of the virus. But an indirect connection is certainly present.

"A large volume of lungs, as a rule, have people who are engaged in physical education and sports, they have a good state of the body's defenses, normal drainage in the lungs, and an accidental pathogen will not" catch on "in them," the doctor explains.

If lung volume does not directly affect incidence, is it worth taking care of their increase? Be sure, the doctor believes, as this will be the prevention of problems in the age.

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“Over time, we lose tissue elasticity, the mobility of the chest and diaphragm, the condition of the alveolar-capillary membrane, through which gas exchange in the lungs takes place, worsens. At a young age, we do not think about it, and after 60 years it is too late to influence. Therefore, the larger the lung capacity, the greater the body's margin of safety ”.

How to train your lungs

Our lungs in the front and back are limited by the space of the chest, and below the diaphragm. Therefore, before you expand and enlarge them, you need to make the sterno-rib joints and the thoracic spine movable, and the diaphragm elastic, the expert explains.

In simple words, you need to work on the flexibility of the back, chest and elasticity of the abdomen.

For this, it is worth mastering three types of breathing: abdominal, chest and full.

“During abdominal breathing, the diaphragm works. It is also useful because during inhalation and exhalation we massage the abdominal organs (liver, spleen, intestines), and this is a good prevention of constipation, ”explains Alexander Zaykin.

Breast breathing develops the chest

With full breathing, the stomach is filled with air first, and then the chest. Figuratively, this can be compared with the opening of the bud when the petals straighten from the bottom to the top in all directions.

With such breathing exercises, the number of capillaries and alveoli increases, as if we lay highways in all corners of our lungs.

Do not forget about training the intercostal muscles. To do this, do breathing resistance exercises. This is one of the reasons why doctors often advise going to the pool. When a person exhales into water, overcoming the resistance of water, positive pressure is created in the lungs.

Respiratory gymnastics must be combined with physical

“These are physical exercises that are well known to us from childhood: backbends, body turns, bends, inhale-exhale with lowering of the arms. Soviet gymnastics is no worse than modern functional training or yoga. It's just that in childhood we did not understand why it was necessary, ”the doctor emphasizes.

How to increase hemoglobin in the blood

The lungs are only part of the respiratory system. The amount of hemoglobin, which carries oxygen to cells, to mitochondria, “power plants” for the production of energy - adenosine triphosphoric acid (ATP) is also important. Cell respiration depends on this.

To stimulate an increase in hemoglobin, you need to give a slight hypoxic load, that is, practice short breath holdings, the expert explains.

“In this regard, the breathing square exercise is very effective. We have 4 phases of the respiratory cycle, and not two, as many people think: inhalation, exhalation, and between them there is still breath holding (on inhalation and exhalation). The breathing square exercise is simple: each phase lasts the same amount of time. For example, inhale for 5 seconds, hold the breath for 5 seconds, exhale for 5 seconds, and hold the breath while exhaling for 5 seconds. And so on for 20-30 minutes. You can start with 5 seconds, gradually increasing this time. Top athletes can stretch the breathing cycle for one and a half minutes, that is, approximately 20 seconds per phase. ”

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The Respiratory Square stimulates the increase in hemoglobin in the blood, makes our vegetative system more resistant to lower oxygen and increase carbon dioxide. It works something like this:

In the respiratory center of the brain there are receptor cells that are sensitive to increased carbon dioxide CO2. When holding the breath, the blood acidifies slightly, the respiratory center is irritated and sends a command to exhale CO2 more quickly. That is why we want to catch our breath, and not because the level of oxygen is falling (its supply in the blood is quite large). With an increase in carbon dioxide, the diameter of arterioles and capillaries reflexively expands, and thereby blood circulation improves, and nitric oxide, an internal vasodilator component, is also released. When people take nitroglycerin during bouts of angina pectoris, nitric oxide is also produced, only by artificial means. With the help of the "breathing square" we can increase the number of capillaries per unit volume of tissue without medication and physical activity.

Alexander Zaikin advises testing the Square Breath mobile application, which freedivers use to warm up. It controls the process and is easy to use. “Respiratory square” can be practiced while walking, only the intervals of delays are measured not in seconds, but in steps: one phase - five steps, for example.

How to restore the lungs after pneumonia

This question is very relevant today. Many doctors have already spoken out on this subject. Alexander Zaikin advises another exercise.

During the period of illness and recovery, it is important to create positive pressure in the lungs. To do this, you can breathe into the water through a tube for 5 minutes every hour.

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It is also worth practicing full breathing, and during the recovery period, continue training by adding the same “breathing square”.

If the lungs are damaged, scars may form in them. To conquer this territory, you need to straighten your lungs as often as possible. The above exercises just help to do this.

And you shouldn’t lie down, the doctor says: as soon as they get better, the temperature dropped, the weakness went away, turn in bed from side to side, lie more often on your stomach, move around the room or ward.

Lung capacity is calculated per kilogram of a person’s weight. We must strive to be above 70 milliliters per kg. Measuring lung volume and related parameters is called spirography. Special devices are located in medical facilities and sports centers. This study is conducted by athletes, people with lung diseases with an asthmatic component to assess the dynamics of the disease. After the epidemic of coronavirus, spirography will be relevant for many.