Test your lungs! Can you make it through 10 revolutions of the dot? This isn't really testing your lungs' strength or capacity. As one commenter puts it:
Lung "strength" is usually determined not by holding your breath but by expelling air. There is the ball-float test that is commonly used where you try to keep a foam ball afloat on your breath in a cylinder for as long as possible.
Holding your breath for long periods of time is usually an indicator of your body's resistance to high buildup of CO2 in your blood and not necessarily your lung strength. This is more a test of your mental strength or pain resistance as well as of conscious control of your heart rate.
So—test your mental strength/pain resistance! My mom had to use a spirometer when she had brain cancer. I tried hers a few times (always cleaned it up afterwards, of course!). Those things can humble you.
Oh, yeah: I barely made it through all ten revolutions of the dot. Doesn't mean much in my diminished state, and it's not the same as testing your VO2 max, but there we go. I think a better test might be how far you can swim underwater at your local swimming pool. Then again, such a test includes other variables like muscle strength, heart health, etc. Is it even possible to isolate lung-related variables? Maybe VO2 max is the best measure we've got.
When I was first diagnosed with COPD, I sat inside a machine and exhaled as long and as hard as I was able. I was judged to be at level 3 COPD (level 5 kills you). There is no getting better; the best you can hope for is to keep from getting worse. That was almost ten years ago; I need to find somewhere to retake that test.
ReplyDeleteI made it through the 10 revolutions with room to spare; I suspect my morning HIIT (high-intensity interval training) routine has probably helped with this, since it is supposed to good for pulmonary function (among other things).
ReplyDeleteJohn: I've read that HIIT can be helpful for people with COPD, so that might be something you want to look into.