Why you should exercise for your respiratory system
“Regular physical activity and exercise improves quality of life, whether you are healthy or you have a lung condition. Many people associate keeping fit with maintaining a healthy heart, losing weight and reducing the risk of illnesses such as diabetes, but exercise also helps keep lungs healthy.”- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov When we exercise there are two key organs that come into play: our heart, and our lungs.
The lungs bring oxygen to the body which provides energy and they also eliminate carbon dioxide and the heart pumps oxygen into the muscles that are working during the exercise. When we exercise regularly we improve our endurance-it takes a longer or more intense activity to get the point where we feel out of breath. This is a direct effect of our strengthening our muscles through exercise. As our muscles become stronger they require less oxygen to move and produce less carbon dioxide which helps breathing become more efficient and shortness of breath less common.
While any exercise is great for our respiratory system as well as for overall health, wellness, and preventative care we can also take steps to focus on exercises that are specifically geared toward respiratory muscle training. “Increasing the strength of your respiratory muscles benefits you by increasing your respiratory volumes. These volumes measure the amount of air you can inhale and exhale, as well as the residual amount that remains in your lungs. Increasing your respiratory volumes allows your body to deliver oxygen to cells more quickly.
Energy production to fuel your activity is more efficient in the presence of oxygen.”-www.livestrong.com
To focus on training our respiratory muscles we will consider how to use our target heart zones, training the heart and lungs, and respiratory strength workouts.
To strengthen your respiratory system you should ideally workout at a rate between 50%-75% of your max heart rate. The idea is to increase your rate of respiration in order to exercise the respiratory muscles. “The basic way to calculate your maximum heart rate is to subtract your age from 220.
For example, if you’re 45 years old, subtract 45 from 220 to get a maximum heart rate of 175. This is the maximum number of times your heart should beat per minute during exercise.”-www.mayoclinic.org. Using a heart rate monitor can be a great tool for this type of training. If you’re new to this type of training try starting at the lower end (50%) and gradually build up to the higher end as your body becomes accustomed to more intense exercise.
Using target zones is an effective way to train both the heart and the lungs. You can also use a breathing resistance exerciser like Expand-A-Lung which will help improve your lung capacity through breathing resistance exercises. Increasing your lung capacity will help you breathe easier even when working out reducing shortness of breath.
Respiratory strength training includes aerobic exercises that work large muscle groups and should be completed 3-5 days per week with a duration of 30 minutes to 60 minutes. “During exercise, your muscles have an increased need for oxygen, increasing the strength required by your respiratory system.
With regular exercise, your heart and lung muscles become stronger and more efficient, making it easier to deliver oxygen to your muscles.”-www.livestrong.com. In addition to cardio using a breathing resistance trainer like Expand-A-Lung will strengthen your diaphragm and your intercostal muscles by specifically targeting them with inspiratory and expiratory resistance.
Exercise has tremendous health benefits, and breathing easier is just one of the many.
