Lung Capacity and Health

Lung capacity is always related to breathing. It means in fact the ability to take in oxygen and distribute it to all your cells in your body. Factors like weight, sex, age, and exercise are important to determine if your lung capacity can be considered as good or not.
Breathing on the right way is important to increase your lung capacity. It is not difficult to learn the correct way of breathing but mostly we don' pay enough attention on this issue.

Breathing happens automatically and if we learn the right technique on a young age we can avoid the problem about changing our manner of breathing and this will save us a lot of problems with the positive benefit that our lung capacity will be much higher. Breathing on the right way means inhaling with the expanding belly and exhaling with contracting belly. With the expanding belly the intake of oxygen will increase. When you breathe very deeply more air comes in your lungs and will be sent to all the cells in your body.

It is important that you exercise regularly to develop the right breathing attitude. It only takes a quarter every day and you will be relaxed after these exercises. It is not only necessary for increasing your lung capacity but also to avoid some diseases like hypertension and will improve our resistance in general. Our body is stronger to fight against bacteria and viruses. Yoga is a good kind of exercise where someone will teach you the right way of breathing. Once you know the right technique it is just a matter of practicing.

In general the average lung capacity is approximately 5,8 liters dependent on your weight, sex and age. Normally a women has a lower lung capacity than a men but if they practice regularly exercise it is perfect possible that some women have a greater lung capacity than men but in general it can be said that the lung capacity of women are 25% lower than men.

Probably you don't realize it but when you are more than 30 years old your lungs will become smaller. Your lung capacity will decline and that means you are quicker tired and you can't do your exercise very well. The risk of a heart attack or stroke will also increase if this happens. Declining of your lung capacity doesn't mean that you can't build it up anymore. Regularly exercise is necessary and it is best that you choose for endurance sports like walking, running or swimming.

These sports give the best results for increasing your lung capacity. Start slowly and build up your schedule slowly and before you know you can practice your sport for a long time. Before you start with your sport it is necessary to consult a doctor who can give you advice if your health is OK to practice your sport. The condition of your heart is important to know which sport is suitable for you and he can give you good advice how to build up your program on a healthy way. Regularly exercise means at least 3 or 4 times each week.

Interval training is another kind of training which can improve your lung capacity very quickly. This kind of training can only be recommended if you are in a condition that you can practice endurance sports for a long time but can increase your lung capacity very quickly. Push yourself to the point that you can hardly breathe during a time of 1 or 2 minutes and repeat it several times. This will increase the oxygen activity in your lungs more effectively than in case of endurance sports. You will notice that your lung capacity will increase quicker than in case of endurance sports. Both kinds of training are necessary to reach the best effect.

For maintaining or increasing your lung capacity it is important that you eat very healthy and avoid smoking and limit the use of alcohol.
Eat a well balanced diet with the necessary vitamins and nutrients. Eat enough vegetables and fruit and limit the proportion of your meal! It is better that you eat more small meals. Don't forget to eat fish every week!

Take your main meal early in the day and don't forget your breakfast. Your breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
Limit also the salt intake and drinks with caffeine. Drink enough water to avoid dehydration and it cleans also your body.

Breathing on the right way, regularly exercise, a healthy diet and avoid smoking are the keys for maintaining and improving your lung capacity. Try it out and you will notice an improvement of your lung capacity and your health in general!