Boost your lung power

In the same way that we can exercise our muscles, aerobic capacity and hearts, we can exercise our lungs. This is especially important:

• leading up to winter flu time, and
• if you smoke, vape, have asthma or lung disease, or are prone to chest infections

Practice deep breathing daily. Keep your shoulders down. Put your hand on your abdomen (not your chest) to make sure the breath is going all the way to the bottom of your lungs. Your abdomen should go out when you breathe in, to expand the lungs, and go in when you breathe out.

Disciplines such as yoga, tai chi and martial arts focus on the importance of the breath. So they are one way to learn better breathing habits, along with the physical benefits.

There are a lot of online resources to help strengthen your lungs and reduce the chance of getting sick, and others on what to do if you get sick.

Strengthening your lungs

From the YouTube channel “lungexercise”:

• Healing Your Breath
• Open Chest Expands Lungs
• Strong Legs Support Lungs

From Qi Gong master Lee Holden:

• 3 Minute Breathing Exercise for Less Stress and More Energy
• 6 Minute White Crane Workout for Strong Lung Qi and to Enliven Your Spine
• Easy 25 Min Qi Gong for Better Breathing

Clearing the lungs

If you get sick with a respiratory illness and can’t get the gunk off your lungs, there is an exercise that physios teach to help bring it up and out. It’s called The Active Cycle of Breathing technique. The following three videos are all based on the same technique but each is slightly different. You may want to watch them all to see which works best for you.

• University College London Hospitals
• MrPhysio
• The Physio Channel – just watch the first half

More from Lee Holden:

• His Covid Recovery story

Originally written for the Brooklyn Wellness Hub