Aerobic Exercise's Effects On Your Lung Capacity

Aerobic exercise means your working muscles are using oxygen to fulfill the need for energy. This means the work you are doing is sustainable, as long as your lungs can take in the amount of oxygen your body needs. To fulfill this additional need your lung capacity expands and your frequency of breathing increases. Other adaptations such as the ability to better utilize the oxygen inside your blood also cause increases in fitness.

Acute Changes

Your breath and lung capacity is measured by the air that you move in liters per minute. At rest your ventilation is about 6 liters per minute. During exercise this can increase up to 192 l per minute at your maximum. This figure represents the change that can occur in a fit and healthy male. Although your figures may vary, it is possible with training to move 32 times the amount of air during maximal exercise than you do at rest.

Respiratory Muscles

With regular aerobic training, the muscles your body uses to bring air into and out of your lungs become fitter. This leads to a more effective and efficient lung capacity. During exercise, you use different muscles to breathe than when at rest. While inhaling, your diaphragm and intercostal muscles work both during rest and exercise. However, with exercise, the accessory inspiratory muscles kick in. The sternocleidomastoid, scalenes and trapezius muscles work to help further open your lungs to force a greater amount of air inside. Similarly, during exercise, additional muscles are used to exhale. Your abdominals and intercostals force a greater amount of air out with each exhale.

Amount and Frequency

To achieve a larger lung capacity, your breathing rate and the amount of air you move both increase. The amount of air moved with each breath is known as tidal volume. Tidal volume can increase up to eight times greater with exercise than it is at rest. In general, you move 0.5 liters of air with each breath. With exercise, this may increase to 4 l per breath. Frequency also increases from 12 breaths per minute up to 48 breaths per minute upon aerobic exercise.

Oxygen Extraction

Aerobic exercise allows your body to more effectively carry and use oxygen. During exercise, an increase in pressure facilitates a larger movement of oxygen inside your lungs and into your bloodstream. Changes around the periphery such as a re-direction of blood flow also accommodate the increased use of oxygen inside the blood. Therefore, it is not just the lungs that can change with aerobic exercise, but also the body's effectiveness at using the oxygen that your lungs provide.