Endurance exercise affects your lungs by improving your ability to perform physical activity for longer periods. Endurance exercise helps your lungs supply all of the cells in your body with more oxygen, while minimizing the effort required for oxygen use and transport. Your muscles use oxygen resources each time they contract during physical activity. Muscles throughout your body benefit from endurance exercise on the lungs, because more oxygen-rich blood enhances cellular energy production.
Air Flow
Regular endurance exercise increases the amount of air flowing into your lungs. The diaphragm and intercostals are the muscles that control your breathing by pulling air into your lungs, which supplies all of your body tissues with oxygen. The diaphragm attaches to the lower part of your ribs, breastbone and spine; the intercostals are between each of your ribs, helping to expand and contract the rib cage with each breath. Regular endurance exercise builds strength and endurance in these muscles, which help you pull more oxygen into your lungs with each breath, the Loyola University Medical Education Network website explains.
Alveoli
Your lungs transfer oxygen to cells throughout your body through small sacs in your lungs called alveoli; the alveoli also transfer carbon dioxide out of your body each time you exhale. Your lungs adapt to endurance exercise by activating more alveoli, which effectively increases your lung capacity. Regular endurance exercise makes your lungs work more efficiently by increasing how much oxygen your lungs can take in and how much carbon dioxide your lungs can remove from your body. Activating more alveoli may help suppress the negative effects of diseases, such as pneumonia and ephysema, which diminish your lung capacity.
Mucus Cleansing
The mucus that lines the walls of your lungs can accumulate and threaten your health. Bronchitis is one example of a disease in which excess mucus secretions build up and block airways. Excess mucus in your lungs can also increase your risk of bacterial infections. In a study published in 1997 in the "European Respiratory Journal," Korean researcher Dr. Wong Don Kim reported that excess mucus in your lungs is associated with higher mortality. Endurance exercise has a cleansing effect on your lungs, removing mucus build up by increasing your breathing rate, pushing strong gusts of air against the walls of your lungs.
Blood Flow
Blood vessels known as capillaries surround the alveoli in your lungs and transport oxygen from the alveoli to working cells, muscles and tissues throughout your body. The capillaries also deliver carbon dioxide to the alveoli for removal from your body each time you exhale. Regular endurance exercise makes the exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen in your lungs more efficient by increasing the size and number of capillaries throughout your body, including the alveolar capillaries.
References
- Teach PE: Respiratory System
- Loyola University Medical Education Network: External Intercostals
- Planet Olive; Physical Exercise; John Toomey; May 1997
- Georgia State University; Alveoli of The Lungs; Carl Rod Nave
- RCN; The Human Respiratory System; March 7, 2011
- "European Respiratory Journal"; Lung's Mucus; A Clinician's View; Wong Don Kim, M.D.; 1997
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