At 01:01 PM 18/01/2003 -0800, Michael E Chesebro wrote: >You cannot expand the capacity of the lungs.
Gould & Okamura (Folia Phoniatrica, 1974, v26: 275-286) did an interesting comparison of lung capacities of trained singers and untrained subjects. To quote from their findings:
"Of interest, highly trained singers do not have substantially increased TLC but have improved their pulmonary efficiency by increasing FRC and reducing reserve volume."
Reserve volume is the air left in your lungs when you breathe out as far as possible. The structure of the lungs is such that there is always air left inside (around 2 litres, if I recall correctly). TLC is Total Lung Capacity, the amount of air in your lungs when you have breathed in as much as possible; this amount includes reserve volume. Their findings were, then, that the lungs of singers were not capable of holding more air than those of non-singers but that the way they expelled air meant they could expel more air than could non-singers (reduce the reserve volume).
Sally
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