How to increase your respiratory capacity naturally?

Caution : You must consult your doctor for your health. This page presents only a personal and alternative point of view which should not be considered as an attempt to prescribe medicine.

It is no secret that without breathing, we cannot speak of human life.

Breathing provides the breath necessary for the proper functioning of the human organism.

Thanks to breathing, for example, the brain can function and adapt better to stressful situations.

Your heart irrigates and nourishes your billions of cells.

It is true that breathing is a natural process, but we can always work to improve it.

You don't necessarily need to take any medication.

You just need to practice a few breathing exercises to naturally increase your breathing capacity.

How do we get there?

We tell you more.

Respiratory capacity: what to understand?

Breathing capacity can be defined as the amount of air that the lungs can hold after a breath.

Having good breathing capacity allows muscles to receive sufficient oxygen for their proper functioning.

In other words, it is the respiratory capacity that allows humans to breathe well.

The more air the lungs can receive, the more tissues and muscles can oxygenate and free themselves from excess CO2.

However, even if your breathing capacity keeps pace with lung capacity, some people also seek to increase their vo2max, that is, their maximum oxygen uptake.

The maximum oxygen consumption or VO₂max is the maximum volume of oxygen that a person can absorb during an aerobic effort (with oxygen / endurance effort) at maximum intensity.

It certainly depends on your breathing capacity and therefore your lungs, but it also depends on your metabolism as a whole.

We could thus speak:

- the number of mitochondria in your muscle cells (the more there are, the more energy your muscles produce)

- your mineral reserves (the more nutritious you eat, the more minerals your body has to produce energy)

- your cellular oxygenation at rest (the higher your oxygen level at rest, the better your vo2max during exercise)

So, in this article, when talking about your breathing capacity, we will also indirectly talk about your lung capacity, but also and especially your vo2max.

Why is it important to increase your lung capacity?

When we breathe at rest, we do not realize the respiratory capacity of the lungs.

Obviously, at this time the ventilation is minimal and almost imperceptible.

Lung limits are only noticed when you start an activity that requires intense physical effort.

During an activity that requires intense effort such as interval training, the lungs need to consume more air in order to ensure gas exchange within the body.

In fact, organs require up to 30 times the amount of oxygen they consume while at rest.

This is the first reason why it is important to increase your breathing capacity.

Increasing one's respiratory capacity then makes it possible to be protected from respiratory failure during exercise characterized by abnormal shortness of breath, which can lead in certain extreme cases to an asthma attack.

This respiratory failure is also a disease that is caused by the decrease in respiratory capacity.

It reduces the volume of air that can be inhaled or exhaled.

The organs are thus less oxygenated and also cannot properly remove carbon dioxide (CO2).

In addition to the sporting aspect of good breathing, increasing your breathing capacity helps to avoid depression.

Indeed, when we are faced with a situation that can cause strong emotions, breathing plays a big role.

It helps to stabilize his emotional state with the help of inspiration and expiration.

Having good breathing therefore ensures good morale.

It should also be noted that having a great respiratory capacity makes it possible to overcome fatigue.

Always breathing at rest as with sedentary people, people end up having breathing problems because they never use their lungs at maximum capacity.

These people generally have a longer recovery time compared to those with a high respiratory capacity such as high level athletes.

How to naturally increase your vo2max?

Daily life is not all about moments of rest.

Sometimes you have to force yourself to be more active than usual by adding small, short but intense exercises to your daily routine to activate your lungs to their maximum capacity.

It is therefore important to increase your ventilation through sport in order to avoid any breathing difficulty caused by a sedentary lifestyle.

It is not a question here of increasing the size of the lungs or their capacity, rather it is a question of indulging in breathing exercises or short and intense efforts to improve their functioning.

For short and intense efforts, it suffices, for example, to climb stairs quickly, to do interval exercises (sprint / rest / etc).

But you can also use some breathing techniques from Yoga.

These are natural techniques to be practiced regularly to have satisfactory results in terms of vo2max.

So here's how to improve your breathing capacity.

Start to inhale and exhale deeply

This technique involves placing one hand on your chest and another on your stomach.

Then, inhale deeply through your nose so that the air enters your lungs.

Check that your belly rises, then that your ribs open and finally the collarbones.

This is a complete yogic breathing in 3 stages, widely used by freedivers to increase their breathing capacity.

Then slowly breathe out gently until the stomach completely flattens out.

You need to repeat the exercise several times in order to get your lungs used to breathing deeply.

This allows you to increase the volume of air you can inhale.

NOTE: be careful, do not hyperventilate, you must breathe as slowly as possible.

Observe your diaphragm while breathing

The diaphragm plays a big role in breathing.

Do you get used to practicing a diaphragmatic breathing while doing deep breaths.

The more you use the diaphragm, the better your oxygenation will be.

Increase the time of breathing exercises

After a few days of exercise, start increasing the length of your breathing cycle by a second or two.

During the two phases of breathing (inspiration and expiration), you should slow down and count the time of each phase.

Make sure your exhale is always longer than the inhale.

Ideally, it should be twice as long as the inspiration.

Start for example by inhaling 2 seconds and exhaling 4 seconds (very very very slowly please).

Then gradually increase 3/6, 4/8, etc. until you reach 20/40, or one full breath over one minute.

If at a certain level the exhalation becomes too difficult, lower your level to stabilize your current capacity.

Later, your body will get used to it and progress.

Dip your head in the water (or snorkel)

Immersion of the body in water is obviously the favorite practice of freedivers who have developed an extraordinary breathing capacity.

By splashing or dipping your head in water, you will quickly feel the need to breathe.

The objective of this technique (apnea) will obviously be to learn to hold your breath the longest.

You can also swim regularly in the pool and dive for a few meters while swimming underwater.

However, be careful not to push your limits at the risk of fainting.

Regardless of the exercises to increase your lung capacity or your vo2max, you must always respect your body limits, otherwise you risk damaging your lungs.

Increasing your breathing capacity is a subtle art that must be mastered little by little through daily practice.

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