any input on expanding lungs

Here in gas mask land where I work, the physiologists have found no benefit in resisted breathing training, other than being better at resisted breathing. Other folks have put forth that your ability to suck in air is just not a performance limiter in any way. On the other hand, your diaphragm DOES take up energy in its own right, I suppose that resisted breathing training could make your diaphragm more economical at what is does meaning it requires less blood supply to do what it is doing. However to believe this you also have to believe that your heart's ability to pump blood is a performance limiter, I think this may or may not be true depending on the athlete and the distance of the race. There seem to be lots of ifs in this situation. I've always figured that controlled breathing for distance events is a pacing device only. Bill-- Thanks for the excellent explication here. Two sideline notes: 1) I took my son to U. Michigan a couple years ago. In 1970, I was the second worst person on the Michigan swim team, and I wanted to show my son the pool where I vomited during practice. It had been covered over and turned into a volleyball court! A metaphor, I suppose, for what has happened to me... In any event, we found the new natatorium where Bob Bowman was coaching two distance swimmers. I introduced myself to the coach, who was exceptionally nice (he ended up giving Ben and me a bunch of swag--t-shirts and the like.) Anyhow, I noticed that the two swimmers were wearing swim snorkels and repeating 100 m swims on a ridiculously short interview. I asked the coach if the swim snorkels were being used to help balance/smooth out their strokes. He said not really. Instead, there were diaphram-like membranes in the mouthpiece with a very small hole cut in it. The swimmers had to really struggle to extract air through this hole. I couldn't believe how fast they were going, a feat made all the more spectacular when I learned they were straining to breathe through pinprick sized holes! Evidently this was a way to train some aspect of their air-processing physiology, though I am not sure exactly what. 2) A magazine I write for is trying to arrange for me to get one of those hypoxic bed-tents that allow you to sleep at altitude and then workout at a normal air-rich environment. In recent years, it seems, the idea that you should train at high altitude has been discredited because you just can't do enough hard work to get in optimal shape. The concept now is to sleep at altitude, to basically "blood dope" naturally, but then work out where you get enough air to really train hard. Not sure if this will do anything for me except trigger a massive infarction, but I will keep you posted if the tent actually arrives!

Here in gas mask land where I work, the physiologists have found no benefit in resisted breathing training, other than being better at resisted breathing. Other folks have put forth that your ability to suck in air is just not a performance limiter in any way. On the other hand, your diaphragm DOES take up energy in its own right, I suppose that resisted breathing training could make your diaphragm more economical at what is does meaning it requires less blood supply to do what it is doing. However to believe this you also have to believe that your heart's ability to pump blood is a performance limiter, I think this may or may not be true depending on the athlete and the distance of the race. There seem to be lots of ifs in this situation. I've always figured that controlled breathing for distance events is a pacing device only. Bill-- Thanks for the excellent explication here. Two sideline notes: 1) I took my son to U. Michigan a couple years ago. In 1970, I was the second worst person on the Michigan swim team, and I wanted to show my son the pool where I vomited during practice. It had been covered over and turned into a volleyball court! A metaphor, I suppose, for what has happened to me... In any event, we found the new natatorium where Bob Bowman was coaching two distance swimmers. I introduced myself to the coach, who was exceptionally nice (he ended up giving Ben and me a bunch of swag--t-shirts and the like.) Anyhow, I noticed that the two swimmers were wearing swim snorkels and repeating 100 m swims on a ridiculously short interview. I asked the coach if the swim snorkels were being used to help balance/smooth out their strokes. He said not really. Instead, there were diaphram-like membranes in the mouthpiece with a very small hole cut in it. The swimmers had to really struggle to extract air through this hole. I couldn't believe how fast they were going, a feat made all the more spectacular when I learned they were straining to breathe through pinprick sized holes! Evidently this was a way to train some aspect of their air-processing physiology, though I am not sure exactly what. 2) A magazine I write for is trying to arrange for me to get one of those hypoxic bed-tents that allow you to sleep at altitude and then workout at a normal air-rich environment. In recent years, it seems, the idea that you should train at high altitude has been discredited because you just can't do enough hard work to get in optimal shape. The concept now is to sleep at altitude, to basically "blood dope" naturally, but then work out where you get enough air to really train hard. Not sure if this will do anything for me except trigger a massive infarction, but I will keep you posted if the tent actually arrives!