I am new to this board any maybe my question has already been discussed here. So hope you don't mind that I might ask again.
I read many articles about Lance Armstrong, all telling that he has one of the biggest lung capacities ever, freakishly lung volume, etc. But somehow I couldn't find out HOW big it actually is. All the articles just telling me something about his VO2max at almost 85 ml/kg. Some other articles about Indurain, Ullrich and others had just the lung capacity named in litres. For example: Indurain (Lung Capacity: 8 l, Ullrich: about 6 l) So can someone help me please?
So hope to get finally an answer in this great forum.
Hey, I was just discussing this very same issue last night with my hubbie. If anyone knows please let us know. I think this is one of the reason why Lance is pretty powerful rider compared to the others!
oso79de said:
Hello all,
I am new to this board any maybe my question has already been discussed here. So hope you don't mind that I might ask again.
I read many articles about Lance Armstrong, all telling that he has one of the biggest lung capacities ever, freakishly lung volume, etc. But somehow I couldn't find out HOW big it actually is. All the articles just telling me something about his VO2max at almost 85 ml/kg. Some other articles about Indurain, Ullrich and others had just the lung capacity named in litres. For example: Indurain (Lung Capacity: 8 l, Ullrich: about 6 l) So can someone help me please?
So hope to get finally an answer in this great forum.
Indurain had one of the biggest lung capacity with about 8 litres. Ullrich has about 6.5 litres. I don't know Armstrong but if one looks at his size he hardly has more than 7 litres. The great Eddy Mercxk was a big guy too, and had 7,5 litre lung capacity.
But keep in mind that lung capacity is not everything. I am sure we could find many riders in the peloton that have more lung capacity than Armstrong and yet they are worst riders.
Mikel Astraloza (sp?) has the highest lung capacity in this year's Tour (7.98 liters). He's 62 in the GC.
your lungs aren't a limiting factor in exercise unless you have some sort of disease, e.g., asthma. note, that lung function (e.g., FEV, etc) is something completely different to VO2max
it's related to body size, and isn't altered by training
ric
Lung capacity isn't what you should be concerned about, its lung capacity in relation to body size/weight that is crucial i.e Armstrong lost weight due to cancer but I don't think that would alter his lung capacity. While I don't think you can change its size you can change its efficiency of transporting oxygen by training for sure.
Lung capacity isn't what you should be concerned about, its lung capacity in relation to body size/weight that is crucial i.e Armstrong lost weight due to cancer but I don't think that would alter his lung capacity. While I don't think you can change its size you can change its efficiency of transporting oxygen by training for sure.
i believe that you're confusing lung 'capacity' with VO2max, which is the body's ability to extract O2 from the air, and transport to organs
it's related to body size, and isn't altered by training
ric
That's pretty hard to believe. If I get into a yoga trance, I can inflate my lungs like a loose balloon. The muscles that need to be relaxed are the abdominals. You notice on the champions--Ullrich, Armstrong--that their abdominals bulge when they ride. That's because they've learned to belly breathe. If you are a chest breather, your lung capacity has been limited by your breathing style, and your abdominals have not learned to relax.
I imagine losing excess body fat will also contribute to increased lung capacity due to its crowding of the internal organs.
I agree there is a limit. But you can increase your lung capacity somewhat through training.
That's pretty hard to believe. If I get into a yoga trance, I can inflate my lungs like a loose balloon. The muscles that need to be relaxed are the abdominals. You notice on the champions--Ullrich, Armstrong--that their abdominals bulge when they ride. That's because they've learned to belly breathe. If you are a chest breather, your lung capacity has been limited by your breathing style, and your abdominals have not learned to relax.
I imagine losing excess body fat will also contribute to increased lung capacity due to its crowding of the internal organs.
I agree there is a limit. But you can increase your lung capacity somewhat through training.
all i know is his heart is 1/3 larger than most of ours and has a resting rate of around 30 and a max of like 200 or so.. that is def. an advantage!
yes it is.. and the #'s dont have to do with his heart rate as much as how powerful his heart is in circulating his blood
You stated that a low resting HR and high max HR was important. HR means nothing. There are many pros who have low maximum HR, and some with moderately high resting HR.
Indeed, it's cardiac output and stroke volume that are important, and in fact, these are the main limiting factors in endurance exercise, i.e., convective O2 delivery.
your lungs aren't a limiting factor in exercise unless you have some sort of disease, e.g., asthma. note, that lung function (e.g., FEV, etc) is something completely different to VO2max
ric
OK but perhaps lung capcity does become a limiting factor once you're doped to the gills like some pro's what i mean is, the higher your oxygen carrying capacity of your blood, the closer you come to the capacity your lungs have to reload the blood with oxygen in the short amount of time the blood is rushing through the lungs...?
That's pretty hard to believe. If I get into a yoga trance, I can inflate my lungs like a loose balloon. The muscles that need to be relaxed are the abdominals. You notice on the champions--Ullrich, Armstrong--that their abdominals bulge when they ride. That's because they've learned to belly breathe. If you are a chest breather, your lung capacity has been limited by your breathing style, and your abdominals have not learned to relax.
I imagine losing excess body fat will also contribute to increased lung capacity due to its crowding of the internal organs.
I agree there is a limit. But you can increase your lung capacity somewhat through training.
You have the same lung capacity when trained and untrained. Training allows you to use more of it.
In answer to izzodesh, max heart rate is not of great significance between athletes in athletic performance. This does not change significantly with exercise. What you can do (and the reason for a lower resting heart rate when you are fit) is increase the stroke volume (the amount of blood pumped with each beat of the heart) by training.
The correlation between lung volume and athletic performance (athletes with greater lung volume perform better than athletes with smaller lung volumes)suggests that lung volume in normal individuals does have an effect on aerobic performance.
Similarly there are quite a few riders with a higher VO2max than LA eg Brad McGee.
And izzodesh - do you realise that you are trying to argue with an expert?
oooh, everyone step back and be really careful, because there is an EXPERT amongst us. I for one no longer feel able to post here because there is a self-proclaimed expert here, one who is wiser smarter and more intelliigent.
ooooh I am scared now. izzodesh, please relent now.
