How To Improve Lung Capacity: What Breathing Exercises Did For COPD And Asthma In The Trials
How to improve lung capacity: the short answer
If you are asking how to improve lung capacity, the most useful answer from the trials is this: train the breath itself. In a 2019 review of 11 trials in people with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, long-term lung damage such as emphysema), yoga improved how far people could walk and how well their lungs worked.
The striking part is where the gains came from. They came from the yoga programmes that focused on breathing. Here is the article in short form:
- 11 COPD trials: people walked further and lungs worked better.
- The gains came from breathing-focused yoga, not the poses alone.
- Coal miners with COPD had less breathlessness after 12 weeks.
- Breathe through the nose; it does five jobs for you.
- Slow and gentle first; fast breathing waits.
- Little and often: gains fade when practice stops.
A quick word on Iyengar yoga. Iyengar yoga is the style developed by Mr BKS Iyengar. In the 20th century he did more than anyone to set down traditional Indian yoga, and his book Light on Pranayama gave a careful, step-by-step way of learning the breathing practices. It is the style we teach at Flametree, in Darwin and live online.
Lying back over a bolster opens the chest so the lower ribs can move. Pranayama is learnt lying down first.
Can breathing exercises really improve lung capacity?
They can improve how well your lungs work and how far you can go. In 2019, Holger Cramer’s team pooled 11 trials, with 586 people with COPD. Yoga improved how far people could walk in six minutes, and how well their lungs worked. The programmes built around breathing showed the gains. The programmes built around poses did not.
That fits what yoga has always said. Pranayama (breathing practice) is a whole discipline of its own, not a few deep breaths at the end of class.
In 11 COPD trials, people walked further and their lungs worked better, and the gains came from the breathing-focused yoga.
What are the best breathing exercises for COPD?
Slow, guided, nose breathing, learnt in steps. Three trials show the range.
- Two American lung clinics, 2017. 43 people with moderate to severe COPD learnt pranayama for 12 weeks alongside education, or had education alone. The breathing group walked about 28 metres further in six minutes; the education group walked about 15 metres less.
- Coal miners in India, 2016. 81 miners with COPD did 12 weeks of daily yoga with poses, breathing practices and pranayama, or waited. The yoga group had less breathlessness and tiredness, and better oxygen levels.
- Gains fade when practice stops. The breath is like a muscle. It needs regular use.
Feel free to check with your professional advisers if you wish, but also give yoga a try. The breathing trials are clear.
Get the free ebook Breathwork’s Original Toolkit. New to Flametree, or away for 3 months or more? You get 2 free classes + 2 ebooks, only available via this offer. Already coming to class? You can still get the book.
Do breathing exercises help asthma?
Some people find they do. In Yoga as Medicine, the American doctor and yoga teacher Timothy McCall tells of Ken, who had lived with asthma for over fifty years. Years of yoga classes had not changed his breathing much. Then he tried the ideas of Barbara Benagh, an Iyengar-trained teacher in Boston with asthma of her own: breathing through the nose, with the out-breath about twice as long as the in-breath.
He practised it walking, on the train, wherever he could. Breathing used to be a struggle, he says; now it feels good. His staff and his children say he is calmer too. That is Ken’s own experience, and it is a good one.
The nose warms, cleans and moistens the air, slows the breath and makes nitric oxide. Nearly all pranayama is breathed through it.
Why breathe through the nose?
Because the nose does five jobs the mouth cannot. It warms the air, cleans it, moistens it, slows the breath down, and holds nitric oxide (a gas that relaxes small blood vessels and helps defend the airways against germs). Nearly all pranayama is done through the nose.
Patrick McKeown, an Irish breathing teacher and former asthmatic, puts it plainly in The Oxygen Advantage: “Good breathing during rest should not be seen or heard.” That is very close to Mr Iyengar’s soft, fine Ujjayi (Victorious Breath, AKA Ocean Breath).
How do you start breathing practice safely?
Lying down, slow and gentle. In the Iyengar way, pranayama is learnt in steps. First you lie on a bolster and watch the normal breath. Then come long, smooth out-breaths and Ujjayi, still lying down. Sitting practices come later, and the strong, fast ones last.
There is a reason for the order. In trials, fast breathing and long breath holds brought more unwanted reactions than slow breathing. In healthy young adults, fast practices such as Kapalabhati (Shining Skull breath) improved three lung measures in one 2015 trial. They are powerful, and they wait until the breath is ready.
In healthy young adults, both fast and slow pranayama improved lung measures. The fast ones are taught later, and not to everyone.
What does a slow breath actually do?
The dome-shaped diaphragm drops, the lower ribs widen, and air is drawn in through the nose. On the way out, the vagus nerve slows the heart. Most adults breathe 12 to 20 times a minute at rest; slow pranayama brings it to about six. Treya, one of our online pranayama students, wrote after ten classes that her lungs had become stronger, just when life got stressful.
One slow breath: the diaphragm drops, the ribs widen, and the heart slows on the way out.
Seated on a bolster, spine lifted, so the chest has room. Sitting comes after the breath has been learnt lying down.
Where can I improve my lung capacity in Darwin?
To work on lung capacity in Darwin, come to Chris’s pranayama classes at 6.30am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, in the studio or live online, or Stuart’s breath meditation at Coolalinga. New to yoga? Start with a beginner class: every one opens and closes with breath work. If you have a lung condition, tell your teacher before class so they can adapt the practice for you.
See also Benefits Of Breathwork, What Is Pranayama? and How To Stop Mouth Breathing.
Breathwork’s Original Toolkit, our free ebook on pranayama and modern breathwork.
Your free copy of Breathwork’s Original Toolkit is waiting. New to Flametree, or away for 3 months or more? You get 2 free classes + 2 ebooks, only available via this offer. Already coming to class? You can still get the book.
Frequently asked questions
Can you increase lung capacity at any age?
You can improve how well your lungs work and how far you can walk. In a 2019 review of 11 trials in people with COPD, many of them older, breathing-focused yoga improved walking distance and lung function.
What is the best exercise for COPD?
Slow, guided breathing practice has the best yoga evidence: in 11 COPD trials, the gains came from the breathing-focused programmes rather than poses alone.
Is pranayama safe with COPD?
Slow, gentle pranayama learnt lying down is the safe starting point. Fast breathing and long breath holds brought more unwanted reactions in trials, so they wait. Tell your teacher about your condition before class so they can adapt it.
Can breathing exercises help with asthma?
Some people find they do. Ken, in Yoga as Medicine, had asthma for over fifty years; nose breathing with an out-breath about twice as long as the in-breath made breathing feel good again. Feel free to check with your professional advisers if you wish, but also give yoga a try.
Why is nose breathing better for the lungs?
The nose warms, cleans and moistens the air, slows the breath, and releases nitric oxide, which helps relax small blood vessels and defend the airways against germs. That is why nearly all pranayama is done through the nose.
How long before breathing exercises help my lungs?
The COPD trials ran for about 12 weeks. Gains fade when practice stops, so it is a habit to keep rather than a course to finish. Many people feel calmer and less breathless sooner.
Do I need to be able to do yoga poses to learn pranayama?
Pranayama is learnt lying down first, on a bolster, so you do not need any poses to begin. In the COPD trials, the breathing itself carried the gains. Beginner classes also open and close with breath work.
Where can I learn breathing exercises for my lungs in Darwin?
Flametree runs pranayama classes at 6.30am on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the studio and live online, and breath meditation at Coolalinga. Beginner classes at Woolner and Coolalinga also open and close with breath work.
Where to next
- New to yoga, or coming back? Start with our half price 10 class pass with 2 classes free, in Darwin or live online.
- For a workplace, team or group: book private yoga classes for groups, online, at a Flametree studio or at your venue.
- Want to see class times first? Look at the beginner timetable.
Flametree Yoga Studio, Darwin and live online. This article is general information, not medical advice. Feel free to check with your professional advisers if you wish, but also give yoga a try.
Sources: Cramer H and colleagues, The risks and benefits of yoga for patients with COPD (11 trials, 586 people), Clinical Rehabilitation, 2019; Kaminsky DA and colleagues, yoga breathing and exercise tolerance in COPD, Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2017; Ranjita R and colleagues, yoga-based pulmonary rehabilitation in coal miners with COPD, 2016; Timothy McCall, Yoga as Medicine, 2007; Patrick McKeown, The Oxygen Advantage, 2015; BKS Iyengar, Light on Pranayama. Further reading: Cramer and colleagues, Clinical Rehabilitation, 2019. Full references are in the Breathwork’s Original Toolkit ebook.
