Exercise can worsen some respiratory conditions in people with conditions such as asthma and emphysema. However, the right exercises can improve the health of your lungs by strengthening the muscles that control breathing. Exercise also helps you maintain a healthy body weight to reduce pressure on your lungs, heart and other organs. Learning to breathe correctly is beneficial to overall body health. Certain exercises can help improve the health of your lungs. If you have a chronic breathing disorder consult your doctor before beginning exercises of any kind.
Step 1
Warm up your lungs and body before beginning any exercise by slow walking, jogging on the spot and doing stretches. Do not stop a strenuous workout suddenly, but slowly taper off by coming to a slow walk if you are running or jogging.
Step 2
Sit upright on a firm surface or cross-legged on a floor mat. Keep your back straight and hold one nostril closed with your finger. Inhale deeply through the other nostril, while keeping your mouth closed. Exhale through your mouth and repeat 15 to 20 times with each nostril. This helps to improve nasal breathing which cleanses and warms the air before it reaches the lungs. Mouth breathing can trigger the brain to think carbon dioxide is being expelled too quickly, causing goblet cells in the lungs to produce mucus, hindering breathing.
Step 3
Lie on an exercise mat on your back with your hands resting on your lower abdomen. Inhale deeply through your nose so that you feel your abdomen rise. Hold this breath for a count of two, and then release by exhaling through your mouth. Repeat 20 to 30 times. This exercise helps to improve the respiratory muscles of the chest, ribcage, back and abdomen for more efficient breathing and improved lung health.
Step 4
Stand up straight with your arms at your sides and inhale through your nose in three short breaths, almost as though you are sniffing. While inhaling lift your arms from your sides to your shoulders and up over your head. Exhale through your mouth while lowering your arms back to your sides. Repeat this exercise 10 to 12 times. This exercise helps open up the lungs to facilitate respiration.
Tips and Warnings
- Swimming requires rhythmic breathing that helps to improve respiration and lung health. Swim laps in a pool to help coordinate your breathing.
- If you feel lightheaded or dizzy during the breathing exercises, immediately stop. You may not be doing them correctly causing hyperventilation. If you are asthmatic always keep a bronchodilating inhaler with you at all times, particularly when you are exercising. This inhaler is usually blue in color. Take any medication for a respiratory conditions exactly as prescribed. Breathing exercises cannot replaced medical treatment.
Things You'll Need
- Exercise mat
