Training & Nutrition - Lungs

Is there a way to work out your lungs as you do the rest of your muscles to increase size and strength or vo2 ??? You see what I am getting at. Sometimes I suck wind when I ride. Other times I am fine.

The only one that i know of, is the PowerLung. (http://www.powerlung.com/products/)

Swimming is often recomended for people with lung problems. Breathing out against the pressure of water provides good resistance training.

A while back i had some really bad problems with my lungs. On filled with blood. After getting "better" i found that i would always be outwinded. So what i did is i when to the doctor and he said that i sould swim (not only does it have good resistance training, it teaches your lungs to use the oxygen much more eficently). They is some breathig activites that i had to do. One of thim is panting kind of hard for 5 mins then rest. Then breath out all of the air in your lungs, pause for 3 seconds then inhale. There were a few thing else that i had to do but i forget most of them. That helped my get the full power of my lungs back, so im sure it may help you with you problem.

Also you never told if you were at one time a smoker.

Jared

VO2 is volume of oxygen per kilogram of body mass. One sure way to increase your VO2 is to lose weight. Be carefull though, this only applies to those who are overweight.

The limiting facter in exercise is getting oxygen delivered to the muscle. This is limited by the blood flow to the muscle and the concentration of hemoglobin (the pigment that carries oxygen) in the blood. Most people have excess lung capacity. That is their blood is nearly 100% oxygenated when it leaves the lungs no matter what their workload (unless they have damaged their lungs by smoking or something like that).

So why do you get out of breath? Well, breathing rates respond to CO2 levels in the blood not Oxygen levels in the blood. CO2 is produced in the muscles in response to exercise.

You really do not have to exercise your lungs.

Swimmers have to time their breathing but that is because they are in the water and breathing in while under water is not exactly a good thing.

Just saw this on ebay, "expandalung" offers the same features at the powerlung i mentioned above, at 20% the price.

Link: www.expand-a-lung.com and http://cgi6.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=expandalung&include=0&since=-1&sort=3&rows=25

I've seen a few posts where people scoff at Bicycling Magazine, but here goes anyway. The August issue had an article about lungs. It talked about exercises for increasing lung capacity and strengthening respiratory muscles. It also discussed breathing techniques and a couple of other things.

I don't know if you can still find the August issue, but you might find it useful if you can. :D

Yes, there are things you can do. Swimming as mentioned above is excellent. It was recommended me by my doc when I was building my lungs back up from damage done by smoking. Also, breathing from the diaphram is good too.

Originally posted by Pat
So why do you get out of breath? Well, breathing rates respond to CO2 levels in the blood not Oxygen levels in the blood. CO2 is produced in the muscles in response to exercise.


While I don't disagree with the posts about exercising the lungs,
I would agree that the biggest factor for a person with normally healthy lungs to "breathe easier" while riding hard is to increase
cardiovascular capacity. The more blood that can be pumped between the muscles and the lungs, the more oxygen will be available. This comes not only from a larger, stronger, faster beating heart, but a highly efficient network of blood vessles servicing the muscles.

But I'm not claiming to be an expert on this.

I have found that riding more does the trick. I'm never completely satisfied with my results, but as I look at the distance, average speed, etc, and compare it to a few months ago, I am always surprised at my progress.

Just saw this on ebay, "expandalung" offers the same features at the powerlung i mentioned above, at 20% the price.

Link: www.expand-a-lung.com and http://cgi6.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=expandalung&include=0&since=-1&sort=3&rows=25

I just purchased an "expand-a-lung".

At first sight it seems like a plumbing doodad with a mouthpeice zip tied(yes, that's right, a white zip tie) to it. But it works as promised with a fairly good range of easy, to near impossible to breath setting on the dial. The dial it's self is very very stiff though. It also doesn't have any number's on it for reference so you kinda have to dial it in on your own and then not change it unless you want to mark on it with some white out or something.

The instructions are pretty simple, clean, adjust, breath in, hold for 5 seconds, breath out, repeat 10x, then clean. Do twice a day after waking up, before going to bed, or before physical activity. Odly enough it doesn't say wether you should plug your nose or not.

I got it just for the hell of it, for 30$ shipped it couldn't hurt, and for the off season i figured it would be a good way to keep my lungs in check along with swimming several time's per week. Aside from being a bit dizzy it seems to work, in making lungs work quite hard. The mouthpeice is soft and comfortable. My only complaint, as with any breathing aparatus is that your spit tends to build up and will drip out the front if you don't lean your head back while using it.

Derek.

Low O2 tent training. Reduce the O2 you are getting and your body will compensate by producing more red blood cells. So you could literally train in a tent... just make sure you have someone watching you so you dont pass out and die :)