[Trombone-l] Altitude vs Lung Capacity?

[Al MacDonald]

Galen,

My understanding is that you can't really increase your lung capacity,
although smoking, lack of exercise, and overweight can reduce it.
Jacobs wrote that he once lost 20 pounds and regained half a liter of
capacity.

You asked: "Lungs have a finite capacity, right? If you are "there"
(full to capacity) already, there's not much point in talking about
it. Right? Does anyone have a lung stretcher?"

I have to say that there's a lot you can do, and very few players even
come close to being at full capacity most of the time.  The fact that
you're asking the question indicates that maybe you haven't ever
really been there.  I'm not sure that I have.  It's a daily
discipline.

Breathing exercises do several things that help, including
- training you to inhale faster
- acclimitating you to breathing fully (to having full lungs)
- training you to exhale with more force, and with more control at all
dynamics
- relaxation
- getting you used to breathing correctly.  A lot of the time, you aren't
really using the lung capacity you already have.
- And yes, increasing your *useful* capacity.  Not the absolute
capacity of your lungs, but the capacity you actually use.

A lot of breathing problems come from forgetting to breathe, or at
least forgetting to breathe correctly.

The Breathing Gym book is good, but the DVD is better for actually
learning the techniques, and having both is even better.

But the best advice, in my opinion, is to find the best teacher you
can and practice what they teach.

Al



JA> On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 5:02 PM, Galen Zinn <grzinn at astound.net> wrote:
>> Thanks for your thoughtful response. Can anyone verify Breathing Gym and/or
>> Arnold Jacobs results (did Arnie have suggestions that increase breath
>> capacity). I had one of his publications several years ago; perhaps I didn't
>> dig deep enough. Lungs have a finite capacity, right? If you are "there"
>> (full to capacity) already, there's not much point in talking about it.
>> Right? Does anyone have a lung stretcher?
>> GRiZ
>>

JA> Lungs have a finite capacity like runners have a finite top speed.
JA> I'm sure there is a limit, but the right activities can increase your
JA> capacity, or at least the capacity that you use.  That's my
JA> understanding anyway.

JA> I have not used the breathing gym, but I've flipped through the book,
JA> and it looks good.  I have a buddy that swears by it, and he has great
JA> use of lots of his lung capacity.

JA> Jeff