Did you know that right now, as you’re reading this, you’re likely only using about 70 to 80 percent of your total lung capacity? That means a significant portion of your lungs—up to 30 percent—is sitting dormant, not participating fully in the vital process of breathing. It’s like owning a supercar but only ever driving it in first gear. This isn’t just an interesting piece of trivia; it has profound implications for your overall health, energy levels, and your body’s ability to fight off illness. Your lungs are the engine of your body, responsible for delivering life-giving oxygen to every single cell, tissue, and organ. When that engine isn’t running at full capacity, your whole system suffers.
Most of us never think about how we breathe until we can’t—when a nasty cold, chest congestion, or something more serious makes every breath a painful effort. We take shallow breaths from our chest, our shoulders rising and falling, completely neglecting the most powerful breathing muscle we have: the diaphragm. The good news is that you can change this. You can train your lungs, strengthen your diaphragm, and learn to access 100% of your respiratory power. In this article, I’m going to give you the tools and education you need to turn your lungs into a powerhouse of health, making you more resilient against whatever comes your way. (Based on the insights from Dr. Mandell)
Key Takeaways
- You’re Underutilizing Your Lungs: Most people only use 70-80% of their lung capacity with normal, shallow breathing, leaving a significant portion weak and vulnerable.
- Weak Lungs Are a Liability: The unused parts of your lungs can become a weak point where pathogens like viruses and bacteria can take hold, potentially leading to prolonged illness.
- The Diaphragm is Your Power Muscle: The key to unlocking your full lung capacity is strengthening your diaphragm, the large muscle below your lungs, through targeted exercises.
- Breathing Exercises Are Your Ammunition: Simple, daily breathing techniques can train your lungs to work at their optimal potential, clear out stale air, and improve oxygen delivery throughout your body.
- Inactivity is the Enemy: When it comes to lung health, especially during illness, movement is crucial. Staying active helps prevent fluid buildup and complications.
1. The Hidden Danger of Inefficient Breathing
Let’s start with a simple analogy. Imagine you injure your lower back. Your first instinct is to stop moving, to lie in bed and rest it. But as days turn into weeks, you notice the pain isn’t getting better; in fact, the area feels weaker. That’s because of the universal principle: what you don’t use, you lose. Those muscles atrophy from lack of use, making them more susceptible to re-injury.
The exact same principle applies to your lungs. With every normal, shallow breath you take, you’re only engaging the top 70-80% of your alveoli—the tiny, balloon-like air sacs where oxygen enters your bloodstream. The bottom 20-30% remains largely unused. This creates a stagnant, low-oxygen environment in the lower lobes of your lungs. When a pathogen—be it a virus or bacteria—finds its way into your respiratory system, where do you think it’s going to thrive? It will gravitate towards that weak, unused, and poorly ventilated territory. This is why a common cold can sometimes escalate into something more serious. Your body’s defenses are weaker in an area that isn’t being actively used and oxygenated. By not practicing full, deep breathing, you are inadvertently leaving a backdoor open for illness.
2. Master the Foundation: Diaphragmatic (Belly) Breathing
The first and most important step is to re-learn how to breathe correctly by engaging your diaphragm. Most adults are “chest breathers,” using the smaller muscles in their chest and neck. You can tell if you’re a chest breather if your shoulders rise and fall when you take a deep breath. This is inefficient and tiring. Babies, on the other hand, naturally breathe from their bellies. We need to get back to that.
How to Do It:
- Sit or lie down comfortably. Place one hand on your upper chest and the other on your belly, just below your rib cage.
- Take a slow, deep breath in through your nose for a count of four. As you inhale, focus on letting your belly expand and push your hand out. The hand on your chest should remain relatively still. This ensures your diaphragm is contracting downwards, pulling air deep into your lungs like a vacuum.
- Keep inhaling until you feel you can’t take in any more air. Your lungs should feel completely full.
- Hold your breath for a brief second.
- Exhale slowly and completely through your mouth, as if you’re blowing through a straw. As you exhale, gently contract your abdominal muscles to push all the air out. Your belly should fall inwards. Try to make your exhale longer than your inhale.
- Repeat this for 5-10 deep breaths. Do this several times a day to build the habit.
Why It Works: This exercise directly targets and strengthens the diaphragm. By making this your default way of breathing, you ensure that every breath is deeper, more efficient, and reaches the very bottom of your lungs, oxygenating those previously neglected areas and making them more resilient.
3. Build Strength with Resisted Breathing: The Bear Hug
Once you’re comfortable with diaphragmatic breathing, you can add some resistance to strengthen the other muscles involved in respiration—the intercostal muscles located between your ribs. Just like lifting weights builds your biceps, adding resistance to your breathing builds your respiratory muscles.
How to Do It:
- While sitting or standing, give yourself a big bear hug, crossing your arms over your chest and squeezing firmly against your rib cage.
- While maintaining this gentle pressure, take a deep diaphragmatic breath in through your nose. You should feel your ribs expanding and pushing against the resistance of your arms.
- Focus on breathing into the sides and back of your ribs. Try to expand your rib cage in all directions (360 degrees).
- Exhale slowly and completely through your mouth, feeling your rib cage contract.
- Perform 3-5 of these resisted breaths in a row. Then, release the hug and take a few normal deep breaths. You’ll immediately notice that breathing feels significantly easier because you’ve just given those muscles a workout.
Why It Works: The intercostal muscles are responsible for lifting and expanding your rib cage to allow your lungs to fill. Applying resistance forces them to work harder, making them stronger over time. Stronger intercostals mean you can take in a larger volume of air with less effort.
4. Cleanse Your Lungs with Forced Exhalation
One of the biggest issues with inefficient breathing is the buildup of “stale air.” This is residual air, low in oxygen and high in carbon dioxide, that sits at the bottom of your lungs. This is particularly a problem for individuals with conditions like COPD or emphysema, but it affects everyone to some degree. This exercise is a powerful way to cleanse your lungs by forcefully expelling that stale air.
How to Do It:
- Stand up straight with your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Take a full, deep diaphragmatic breath in through your nose, filling your lungs completely.
- Now, in one explosive movement, blow the air out through your mouth as hard and as fast as you can. As you do this, simultaneously contract your abdominal muscles forcefully, pulling your belly button back towards your spine. The motion is sharp and powerful, like a single, forceful “HA!”
- You should feel your diaphragm push up and your abs tighten as you shove the air out.
- Relax, and then repeat the process 4-5 times.
Why It Works: A normal, passive exhale doesn’t clear all the air from your lungs. This technique uses your powerful abdominal muscles to create a high-pressure exhalation that forces out the trapped, stale air from the lowest lobes of your lungs. This makes room for a greater volume of fresh, oxygen-rich air on your next inhale, dramatically improving gas exchange.
5. Expel Debris with the Controlled Cough Technique
Coughing is your body’s natural mechanism for clearing mucus, dust, and other debris from your airways. You can harness this mechanism with a controlled exercise to help keep your lungs clear, especially if you’re feeling congested.
How to Do It:
- Sit comfortably in a chair, keeping your back straight.
- Take a deep, slow diaphragmatic breath in through your nose, filling your lungs to their maximum capacity.
- Now, instead of just exhaling, perform two to three short, sharp coughs to expel the air. This should be a powerful cough that you feel originating deep in your chest.
- The goal is to make the coughs productive, pushing the air out in forceful bursts.
- Relax and take a normal breath before repeating the cycle. Do this 4-5 times in a session.
Why It Works: This technique, often called “huffing” or controlled coughing, helps move mucus up and out of the smaller airways into the larger ones, from where it can be cleared more easily. It’s a way to be proactive about lung hygiene, helping to prevent buildup that could lead to infection.
Your Daily Lung Workout
The worst thing you can do for your lungs, especially when you’re feeling under the weather, is to be sedentary. Lying in bed allows fluid to pool in your lungs, which can lead to serious complications like pneumonia. You must keep moving. Walk around, move your upper body, and most importantly, practice these breathing exercises. Take just a few minutes every day to run through this routine. A few sets of belly breaths, a round of bear hugs, and a few cleansing coughs can make a world of difference. You are training your lungs to be strong, efficient, and resilient.
Conclusion
Your respiratory health is not something that should be left to chance. You have direct control over the strength and capacity of your lungs. By dedicating just a few minutes each day to these simple yet powerful exercises, you can strengthen your diaphragm, learn to use your full lung capacity, and provide your body with the oxygen it needs to thrive. You are building a stronger defense system from the inside out. Don’t wait until you’re sick to think about your breathing. Start today, and make every breath a conscious step towards better health.
Source: Dr. Mandell