tips to improve lung capacity

Lung capacity can not actually be increased. However, you can increase the efficiency with which you use oxygen. If a person's lung size cannot increase, how does exercise serve to improve lung function? - Scientific American

There's a little plastic meter (spirometer) used at hospitals which calculates the amount of air you can inhale. My dad gave me the one he had to use. I noticed with practice I can gradually increase the volume of one breath as I went from moving guage through cylinder from 1⅓ times (5300) to 1⅔ times (6600) for one breath. With this it more about how much of the total air in your lungs you can expel prior to inhaling. With practice you can increase this

Thanks Glenn! This is a great article, although I am surprised to read that the FVC can not, in fact be increased. I guess I had understood this in terms of what Steve (with the spirometer) below is referring to, and that some of you may know of some neat drills to train the lungs to be able to inhale more air at a time and also use it up (i.e. exhale) more slowly. I already do things like increasing my number of strokes between breathes, or gliding for a length underwater...

Lung capacity can not actually be increased. However, you can increase the efficiency with which you use oxygen. If a person's lung size cannot increase, how does exercise serve to improve lung function? - Scientific American Thanks for responding this is a good explanation on how to improve your O2 efficiency. Hope this helps, Andrew

Try incorporating into your workouts sets such as, 10x75's with first lap 5 breaths, second lap 4 breaths, and the last lap 3 breaths. It helps me build lung endurance.

I do some breathing drills in my workouts sometimes to focus solely on breathing. For example, doing 25s taking 1 or 2 breaths, or breathing on every 6th stroke to start and then increasing from there - every 7th, 8th, etc. doing 50s breathing every 2nd or 3rd stroke and increasing from there - every 4th, 5th, etc. Whatever the distance, pick a starting point and increase from there - it should feel comfortable and progress to feeling somewhat challenging as you exercise your lung capacity. My endurance and lung function during swimming have improved. At 59 a one-hour workout is now an easy routine. Nelson Ildefonso

I am a pretty new "adult onset" swimmer. I guess I'm wondering WHY a swimmer should strive to take fewer breaths? Or is this just more of a training exercise to develop a skill, or resist the "urge" to breathe...but come raceday the swimmer would breathe as much as they need, correct?

I am a pretty new "adult onset" swimmer. I guess I'm wondering WHY a swimmer should strive to take fewer breaths? Or is this just more of a training exercise to develop a skill, or resist the "urge" to breathe...but come raceday the swimmer would breathe as much as they need, correct? Miss Jackie Hopefully, on race day, the swimmers will remember the coaching advice and improve their races. The thought is that when you are in a tight streamline you are swimming the 5th stroke, Andra such it can be added to all of the competitive strokes except ***. Breakouts can be executed faster if done on your side using a side dolphin kick (fishing) and about 3-4 feet underwater. Now not all swimmers can do this and obtain an advantage. If you are a swimmer who can do this well consider then you will have to practice underwaters without breathing. When swimmers refrain from breathing they generally swim faster due to a steady head, maintained with the back of the head at the top of the water as apposed to the eyebrows or hairline at the surface. As a result swimmers who swim with their head down will generally only be able to see the lane line directly below and will feel awkward swimming without seeing where they are going! Yea we are all flying blind! Now breakouts, turns and finishes. Breakouts-are the first part of your race following the dive or push off. There can be a lot of variation here from surfacing and beginning to swim to holding streamline and side dolphin kick about 3 feet underwater to the 15 meter mark! In all cases when breaking the surface, try to multiple senses to locate the surface. Look at the distance to the bottom of the pool. Use perspective to measure the distance. Know how the line looks when you are just about to break the surface. Feel the water start to ripple behind your head, neck and shoulders. Don't look forward. Your head will rise out of position and slow your underwaters considerably. If you can see your hands your eyes are too high! I have attached the starts clinic where we actually run all of the variations until we identify what gets you to the 15 meter mark fastest. Turns-flip turns require the swimmer to hold their breath for a time. If you know you can hold your breath to flip, why not practice the best turns possible? As you take the last strokes into the wall. Leave one hand by on the front side of your swimming suit the leave the other hand with the first on the front side. When you are about to begin your flip, grab your hands and make a streamline position pointing toward your feet and to the other wall. After you are in this position, you may use a single dolphin kick to pop your legs over combined with tucking your chin, making a compact ball and with no sneaky breathes or waving hands. Your hands and arms are always pointing toward the other wall throughout the flip. This type of set up for your turn will put you right on your back in streamline toward the other wall after your turn is executed. You will be required to use some of that precious air to blow nose bubbles to keep water out of your nose. Push from the wall and use your kick to role from your back onto your stomach or side as soon as possible and continue to the 15 meter mark at about 3 feet under water. This is done without sneaking any breaths. Then take at least three swimming strokes without breath to set up the best body position and technique for your sprint. If you can find someone of similar abilities then approach the wall shoulder to shoulder and see who gets off the wall faster! Build and finish-when possible try to find another swimmer of like abilities. As you cross the pool build your momentum. Every stroke is incrementally faster until you are at full on sprint at the wall. Take a final breath and keep your head down and swim 5 meters to the wall. Avoid looking at other competitive swimmers, or smiling for the cameras during the last 10 meters. With that final breath you will have enough air to last through the touch! If you are at similar abilities you can see which one gets to the wall faster! So breathing sets where we hold our breath for a continuous 100 might be broken into 25's with the following breathing patterns. First 25 breathe after 3 strokes, second 25 breathe after 5 strokes, third 25 breathe after 7 strokes, fourth 25 breathe after 9 or if that is too much of a challenge go back to breathing every 5 strokes. This kind of hypoxic set will make it much easier to perform breakouts, turns and finishes! Please refer to the attached starts clinic information to discover what works best for you! Best to you, Coach Andrew