The stand out feature of swimming that makes it different from many other physical activities is the fact that it takes place in water. This forces you to get tactical about your breathing as you swim. Three out of four of the Olympic strokes require you to swim with your face often submerged in the water. Learning how to increase lung capacity for swimming is essential if you want to enjoy the benefits that better breathing can bring to your stroke.
In this article, we’ll analyze Olympic swimmers to give us some insight into what good breath control looks like. Then, we’ll have a look at the advantages that come from greater lung volume. Lastly, we’ll find out how to increase lung capacity for swimming by using specific swimming workouts.
Lung Capacity Case Study
Before we take a deep dive into how to increase lung capacity for swimming, let’s do a little simple research. Find any video online of one of the 50-meter freestyle finals at the Olympics.
As well as the startling speeds at which they swim, you might also notice that on average each swimmer takes 1-2 breaths at most, and there are even some swimmers who do not breathe at all for the entire 50 meters. This shows how important having excellent lung capacity is for a swimmer. Of…
