Increased lung capacity = increased strength
Not sure where to post this but I have been used in study of increasing lung capacity for my swimming...
Theguy who was conducting the tests also commented that the breathing exercises also aid with insomnia, nervousness and core strength...
It worked real well for my swimming and to be honest my lifts have steadily gone up (but that could be duee to other things)
CYCLING PERFORMANCE TIPS
Breathing for Highly Trained Athletes
Air from your surroundings is brought into the lungs during pulmonary ventilation. After being adequately warmed and moistened in the upper ariways (nasal passages, trachea, and bronchii) it ultimately moves through the bronchioles and alveolar ducts to the alveoli where gas exchange occurs - oxygen diffusing across the alveolar lining nto the blood and carbon dioxide out into the alveoli.
The diaphragm muscle makes an airtight separation between the abdominal and thoracic cavities. During inspiration it flattens, increasing the space (and negative pressure relative to the atmosphere) in the thoracic cavity while decreasing the volume of the abdominal cavity (unless the abdominal muscle relax to offset this effect). During exercise, the intercostal muscles and other thoracic wall muscles (the accessory muscles of respiration) contract to aid the expansion (and increase the negative pressure) in the thoracic cavity. During expiration the opposite occurs in the diaphragm and accessory respiratory muscles, the thoracic cavity decreases in size, and air flows out of the lungs.
With exercise conditioning, you will increase the amount of air that is regularly brought into the lungs each minute, and thus the amount of oxygen that can be extracted and delivered by the heart and vascular system to the exercising muscles. Along with the changes in the capillaries at the muscle cell level, this training effect allows you to ride longer and stronger without becoming anaerobic in your metabolism.
RESPIRATORY MUSCLE TRAINING
Would specific respiratory muscle training help the performance of trained, elite athletes?? Let’s see what the literature has to say.
So what can we conclude from these studies?
• Inspiratory muscle fatigue does occur with prolonged high intensity exercise and can be delayed by specific inspiratory muscle training (IMT).
• There is controversy as to whether a normal training regimen adequately trains respiratory muscles to meet the needs of the activity for which the athlete is training. This includes meeting the oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange requirements of the endranece athlete’s cardiovascular system, by providing adequate ambient air to the alveoli, as well as by decreasing lactic acid production from the repiratory muscles themselves for the appropriate level of respiratory activity.
• The muscular capacity for pulmonary ventilation MAY limit physical performance in the highly trained athletes.
• Preliminary research has demonstrated that inspiratory muscle training improves performance in highly trained rowers by some 2% more than a placebo group. Further studies should help to clarify whether specific respiratory training may improve the performance of the elite endurance athlete.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
First, practice taking a deep breath. Typically during a normal breath we use only 10 to 15% of our lungs. And during exercise, we increase the rate, not the depth of our breathing. Although deep breathing is more work and uses a bit more energy, the pay off can be that 1 - 2% edge in a competitive situation. Here's 4 ways to make it happen:
• Exhale more completely. If you exhale more completely, it is easier to take a deep breath. The usual rhythm is exhale to a count of 3 followed by inhaling to a count of 2.
• Belly breathe. As you concentrate on deep breathing, you will push your diaphragm down and thus the abdominal contents out. If you are doing it correctly, your abs will expand more than your chest.
• Widen your hand postion. A 2 cm wider hand postion will open up your chest and decrease the difficulty of drawing in a deep breath.
• Synchronize your breathing. Try to synchronize your respiratory rhythm to that of your pedal cadence. Remember the 3:2 ratio of exhale to inhale.
However a variation of pursed lip breathing focuses on the rhythm of respiration. Ian Jackson has developed a program, BreathPlay, which teaches skills in controlling ones expiration (and as a result inspiration) of air. He notes that ", athletes discover that pushing air out is a much more efficient way of meeting oxygen demands than sucking air in. They also discover how the active outbreath can bring powerful precision to any movement. The BreathPlay paradigm advocates using the active outbreath to setup a spinal stretch which is then released with the passive inbreath." It taps into the power of both "focus" and "hypnotherapy" to achieve performance gains.
PURSED LIP BREATHING
Does pursed lip breathing provide an advantage by creating a back pressure to keep the collapsing airways open? According to Frand Day MD ([email protected]) "Back pressure to keep the airways open on exhalation is really only necessary in seriously diseased lungs (such as seen in intensive care units). This is not normally necessary in athletes whose lungs are functioning normally (asthma attacks aside, where purse lips breathing is of littlebenefit). Moving air in and out of the lungs is a simple matter of physics. The volume of air moved depends upon the anatomy of the airways and the delta P (pressure) between the alveoli and the outside. On inhalation the expanding chest tends to open the airways, somewhat reducing the delta p necessary to move the required amount of air but exhalation tends to close the airways, requiring a higher delta p, but pursing the lips does nothing to change the required delta p if the lungs have normal amounts of elastic supportive tissue that normally keeps the airways open. As stated before, this increased back pressure is most useful is seriously diseased lungs and I am not aware of any data to show it useful in normal athletes."
DECREASED LUNG CAPACITY WITH ENDURANCE EVENTS
A recent report indicated that lung function tests of endurance athletes during "ultra" marathon sports events has indicated a progressive decrease in lung volume and expiration rates of between 5% and 20% ,commonly indicative of asthma related disease. These results were noted in various sports events including canoeing, running, skiing and cycling. It was postulated that these athletes exhibited symptoms of exercise induced asthma. Does exercise cause spasm in the lung airways in all athletes, not just asthmatics??
There is some evidence that endurance athletes may become sensitized to allergens (proteins that cam bring on an asthma attack) and other environmental toxins the longer they are involved in their sport. This may be why such a high percentage of elite athletes are on medications for "exercise induced asthma".
But with exercise induced asthma (which is the same as any other asthma), vital capacity diminishes with even a few minutes of beginning easy exercise. In ultra endurance athletes, there is most likely another factor (something that would occur in everyone such as fatique or dehydration) causing lower lung volumes and muscular efficiency that slowly evolves as exercise continues. This still to be identified factor,not asthma, reduces vital capacity if the event was long enough and becomes the most logical reason why such a high percentage would show reduced lung capacity.
which means if your lung capacity is good before u start ultra marathons, arduous exercise, it will decrease the effect of exercise induced asthma
just some food for thought....
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