I'm very curious about a few things:
1) Average lung capacity of a competitive swimmer vs average population and other competitive athletes from different sports.
2) Comparisons of same groups ability to exhale with force. Are swimmers in the top percentile of watermelon spitting champs?
3) How this relates to cardiovascular health.
4) What are your favorite drills or workouts to help with the ability to spit watermelon seeds? (or gain lung capacity to swim faster and longer)
I sat nervously watching competitors at our County Fair Watermelon Spitting Contest last weekend. The 300lb guy that looked like he could eat the entire watermelon in one bite, the skinny girl full of energy, and many others went to the line to top my first shot of 49 1/2 feet. The closest was an average looking teen that fell 2ft short.
Extra Credit Question:
Do swimmers have a higher incidence of sleep apnea then then normal in the population? If so does all this holding of breath contribute? this seems more serious...
Josh, thanks for your expertise here.
If the link between swimming and lung size is real, and if (as you suggest) it's unlikely an effect of training, then it may be (as someone else earlier suggested) a cause--kids with slightly larger than normal lungs are more buoyant in the water and can swim a bit faster because of it and thus may be slightly more likely to take the sport seriously because of this positive reinforcement.
The largest lung capacity I have ever personally witnessed was in a trombone player with the Minnesota Symphony. I am pretty sure he was a smoker, which no doubt reduced his air snarfing a bit, but it was still amazing.
I witnessed this during a trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. We didn't have a bellows, so to get the campfire started each evening, four of us (three concert musicians and a token tone-deaf canoeist, me) would take turns blowing on the embers. The trombone player could blow at least three times longer than any of the other of us, and it wasn't because he was husbanding his stream of air better than us. He not only blew longer but he blew harder.
(Sorry about all the blow references here; there is no hidden meaning intended.)
Anyhow, smoking aside, if they ever make Avodart for the lungs, this guy won't need it.
Did playing the trombone increase his lung capacity? Or did great lung capacity steer him towards playing the trombone?
I vote for the latter.
Josh, thanks for your expertise here.
If the link between swimming and lung size is real, and if (as you suggest) it's unlikely an effect of training, then it may be (as someone else earlier suggested) a cause--kids with slightly larger than normal lungs are more buoyant in the water and can swim a bit faster because of it and thus may be slightly more likely to take the sport seriously because of this positive reinforcement.
The largest lung capacity I have ever personally witnessed was in a trombone player with the Minnesota Symphony. I am pretty sure he was a smoker, which no doubt reduced his air snarfing a bit, but it was still amazing.
I witnessed this during a trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. We didn't have a bellows, so to get the campfire started each evening, four of us (three concert musicians and a token tone-deaf canoeist, me) would take turns blowing on the embers. The trombone player could blow at least three times longer than any of the other of us, and it wasn't because he was husbanding his stream of air better than us. He not only blew longer but he blew harder.
(Sorry about all the blow references here; there is no hidden meaning intended.)
Anyhow, smoking aside, if they ever make Avodart for the lungs, this guy won't need it.
Did playing the trombone increase his lung capacity? Or did great lung capacity steer him towards playing the trombone?
I vote for the latter.
