It’s been a long time since I took SCUBA lessons, but as I remember being told you always breathe. True, you don’t want to take rapid and shallow breaths. You have to relax, so you won’t use up the air so quickly. However, you have to breathe all the time. IIRC it’s the nitrogen. The nitrogen will bubble out into your system if you don’t breathe the atmospheric air in the tank. I’m not sure about that, so someone can jump in on this and jump all over me. But I do remember being told to ALWAYS BREATHE.
When people first start diving, they have a tendancy to burn through all their air relativly quickly, and when they dive with an experienced diver, it pisses him off because the dive’s then over for both while he still has have a tank. You do always breath, but it’s more a matter of controling your breathing especially when exerting yourself by long periods of swimming and maneuvering underwater so you don’t use your air too fast. Also the deeper you go the faster you use air. You’ll get the bends (the nitrogen thing) if you surface from depth too quickly; you’ll pop your lung if you hold your breath while ascending from depth as the air will be under less pressure as you rise and therefore expand in volume in your lungs.
Yes, your capacity to hold your breath definitely increases with incread CV fitness. Primarily this is beacause CV fitness is partially due to an increased concentration of red blood cells. Because of this your blood has an increased ability to hold both oxygen and carbon dioxide, and as a result you can go longer without oxygen intake. This is one of the primary reasons why increased fitness leads to a lowering of heart rate.
Increased fitness leads to a lower HR because of improved cardiac muscle allowing the heart to pump more blood with the contraction. The fact that there is a greater concentration of red blood cells also helps in the need for less blood. So, that may also play a role.
Your VO2 increases with fitness, but that has no relation to lung capacity.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by barbitu8 *
Increased fitness leads to a lower HR because of improved cardiac muscle allowing the heart to pump more blood with the contraction. The fact that there is a greater concentration of red blood cells also helps in the need for less blood. So, that may also play a role./quote]
Which oversimplifies the situation immensely. The lower heart rate that results from CV fitness is the result of numerous factors including an increaseed vascularisation of the volountary muscles, changes in myoglobin concentration and distribution, improved respiratory technique and size and vascualarisation of the diaphragm and intercostal muscles and the already mentioned changes heart muscle size and RBC concentration. Fit people don’t have a need for less blood, the gas transport capacity of the existing blood volume is simply improved.
And the OP makes no mention whatsoever of lung capacity. It simply asks “Does breatholding ability increase with increased aerobic fitness”, the answer to which is a definitive YES.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Gaspode *
I’ve actually been wondering if the opposite is true. Can holding your breath improve your lung capacity? There is a company called the Powerlung that claims that their device is like “weight training for your lungs”. The device looks like an inhaler but is actually more of an “exhaler”. It sounds very implausable to me. However, on the off chance that it has some merit, I decided to save the $85 cost and tried holding my breath for increased periods of time. I, too, got better at holding my breath but I don’t know if I achieved anything else. Also, is there a downside to this practice?
???
It took you over 20 seconds to take a deep breath and then exhale it?
**
Hey 'Pode, I think you may be running out of Gas on this one.
I tried to find articles supporting the notion of increased hematocrit (RBC concentration) associated with increased fitness. Instead, though, the literature supports the opposite notion.
You also state that the increased hematocrit increases CO[sub]2[/sub] capacity. My understanding is that the majority of CO[sub]2[/sub] is transported as dissolved gas or as carbonic acid/bicarbonate (thanks to the action carbonic anhydrasae which, BTW, is located within the RBCs) with a relatively small amount carried in association with hemoglobin. Even if CO[sub]2[/sub] capacity were substantially increased, though, I’m not positive how that bears on breathholding since by not breathing, the only means of reducing onboard CO[sub]2[/sub] is out of the picture. Maybe you could argue that with a higher capacity, the CO[sub]2[/sub] concentration “seen” by the respiratory center is reduced.
Do you know of any data supporting the aerobic fitness-breathholding connection?
I found this interesting article.
Of course it says nothing about aerobic fitness, but it shows that a component of the sensation of air hunger is independent of blood pO2 or pCO2 levels. This result is in agreement with the the observation reported by many in this thread that with breathholding, practice makes perfect. Perhaps, if a link between aerobic fitness and breathholding does exist, such a connection would be through a modification of the transmission of air hunger impulses from the lungs?
I can confirm, at least in my case, that there is no positive correlation between fitness and hematocrit. In fact, my hematocrit, along with my hemoglobin, has been on the low side of normal (hg=13) for many years, ever since I began running marathons over 20 years ago. So, there may well be a negative correlation. One year, my doctor noted my hg to be 12 and wanted a repeat exam, which was 13.
Okay, this is an EXTREME wag, but maybe it’s similar to adjusting to hypoxia, wherein your body starts producing more red blood cells.
Keep in mind I’m a humanities fellow and this could not be further out of my realm than if I were to try correcting Hollywood on it’s perception of Chaos Theory, but I just felt like telling everyone that I know what hypoxia is.
I should add, to expand upon Choosybeggar that auto-hemodilution means that as you get fitter, your blood volume increases. In addition to a high ejection fraction, your left ventricle holds more blood due to increased blood volume. This, however, results in a reduced hematocrit, although the absolute numbers of hgb are not reduced.
Nonetheless, check out this amazing exercise physiology web page.
Thanks a heap for that link ** choosybeggar **. It cleared up a longtime problem I’ve had with heart enlargement: the hypertensive have enlarged hearts, but so do those who exercise a lot. What’s the difference? I came to the conclusion, long ago, that the athlete’s heart wall is thicker, but now I see that’s only one factor. The heart is not only thicker but longitudinally bigger; whereas, the hypertensive’s is just longitudinally bigger. This, however, is the same as the weight lifter. So, that’s another problem. I haven’t read all of that link yet, but from what I read, that dilemma was not resolved.
BTW, I wish that the author was consistent in his spelling of “intermittent.” I noticed that in spite of the many times he used that word, he spelled it correctly only twice.
He spells it correctly intermittantly. I was going to suggest that you cut the author some slack because he if from Norway but checking my facts, I see that he is an American, now living in Norway. Either way, there is a tremendous amount of information at this site. I’ve been visiting it for about a year now and I’m still learning (slowly). I especially like the suggestion for using heart rate reserve instead of maximum heart rate to gauge maximum efforts. This is discussed under the heading “Understanding Heart Rate”. As a cyclist and XC skier, “Understanding Intervals” is also very useful. It is probably less useful to runners, but I’ll suggest it anyway.
I didn’t get any feedback about my Powerlung question. I was hoping someone had tried it or knew enough not to and could tell me why…
Runners do intervals, too. It’s no less useful to them. I never even heard of this Powerlung.
No problema. De nada.
I found it astonishingly good and posted it thinking that you, specifically, might like it.
I love it when someone gets just the right gift.
I had always assumed that intervals helped improve speed but not necessarily endurance. Since you mentioned marathons, I didn’t figure sprinting played much of a factor. Apparently I don’t know much about running, having given it up about 25 years ago.
As for the powerlung, I hesitated to post the link but you can see for yourself…Powerlung
As that link that Choosybeggar posted shows, interval training is the fastest way for cardiovascular improvement. And marathoners also do intervals, which is not the same as sprinting. Sprinting is an all-out dash. Intervals consist of a set number of repeats of set distances with a set time of “intervals” of rest in-between. The repeats are not sprints. They initially are done at “date pace” working up to “race pace.” I’ve known many marathoners who’ve done mile intervals. In fact, I did some years and years ago. I don’t do much of any kind of intervals now.
I should have noted that you’re right about intervals and endurance. If you’re interested in only finishing a marathon and not in your time, then there’s no need for intervals.
Perhaps your intervals are not sprints but mine usually are. The cycling club that I train with does intervals that are extremely fast and take a maximum effort on my part(s). If I trained alone, I probably wouldn’t be inclined, or able, to push myself as hard. The critical factor however, is not the interval intensity, but making sure there is sufficient recovery between intervals. What I learned from the MAPP site is that the goal is not to gradually increase the intensity of the interval. It is to increase the duration at which you can expend that effort.
Of course, none of this has anything to do with the original topic. Thanks, though, for your input. I’m still thinking that the Powerlung link might be loosely related to the OP. The company does have some science to back up their claims. However, I believe if they had any credibility, they lost it in their “Reviews” section, which consists mainly of ads placed by them in various magazines.
The MAPP site refers to the speedwork portion as “sprints,” but did place the word in quotes to show that they are not really sprints, merely using the word to distinguish them from the “jogs.”
Everything I’ve learned about intervals is that they are NOT sprints. You’re not going to do 12 x 400s with a 200 job by going all out. You have to do them slow enough so you can complete 12 of them. Many people I’ve seen do them too fast and can’t complete 12.
I once took a week-long running camp with Roy Benson and his crew and he went into some details about how the speed work should be accomplished. He got most of his ideas from the late Bowerman.
That said, you’re not loafing doing the speed work. But you’re not going 100% all out either.
Intervals differ from repetitions in that you don’t have “sufficient recovery.” Your recovery is only partial. Repetitions you have complete recovery and, of curse, a longer rest period. It is, however, during the recovery that your heart improvement is experienced, not during the speed portion. I think that what you are referring to as “intervals” are really “repetitions.”