New year, new you. This is when many adults, ready to set aside the holiday treats and endless parties, look to not only get back into their regular lifestyle, but also invest in themselves. Through choosing to lose bad habits or establish new ones, spend more time on mind or body, increase time with family or begin working for others, this is the time of year when we look inwards and consider what we can do as individuals to improve ourselves or the world around us.
Wellness Resolutions Reign Supreme
According to a recent poll, health-focused resolutions held the top spots for 2019 resolutions. Even if they are not officially acknowledged as “resolutions,” many people choose to start healthy habits in the weeks after New Year’s Eve. For those who fall in the second largest group, choosing to exercise more, there are ways to increase the odds that success will be achieved. Since over half of those who make resolutions fail by January 31st, setting a plan into motion which can be incorporated without a major disruption to your life can ensure your new habits fit relatively smoothly into your lifestyle.
As part of a plan to exercise more, new (and established) athletes look for methods to reach their goals. Whether it be for a specific amount of weight lost, an increase in a specific athletic ability, the improvement of disease-related symptoms, or the desire to participate in a sport, the entire body needs to be considered. Creating fitness plans which focus on the legs, arms, or skills like flexibility or stamina are all great, but the foundation is the respiratory system. Since a strong set of lungs will allow you to tackle any of your health goals, lets discover how you can improve your breathing as part of your 2019 resolutions.
Quit Smoking
This goes without saying for many athletes, but the bottom line is that smoking damages the lungs. Even infrequent smoking contributes to a host of health issues, including respiratory tract infections, slow recovery from injury, and in women, a 500% increase in lung cancer. Look at it this way: if eating fast food once a day or once a week can endanger weight loss plans, so can smoking cause damage to your entire body, especially your lungs. http://blog.powerlung.com/better-breathing/top-tips-for-keeping-your-lungs-healthy
Drink More Water
Water is life; every cell in the body needs water to function correctly. When it comes to the lungs, the need for hydration (and humidity) is noticeable by anyone who exercises regularly. Water is needed to thin secretions in the lungs and helps to keep the lining of the lungs and sinuses moist, which helps to reduce the inhalation of irritants. Additionally, dehydration can cause electrolyte imbalance, reducing your stamina and speeding up fatigue.
Visit Your Doctor
Learn your lung cancer risk and educate yourself on ways to maintain a low risk. Although smoking is thought to cause 80% of all lung cancers, you should consider lung cancer screening if you have some of the risk factors such as smoking, exposure to radon or hazardous chemicals, and family history.
Create a Fitness Routine which Includes Cardio Workouts
Cardio (short for “cardiovascular”) are workouts designed to increase your heart rate, usually for an extended period. Benefits to adding cardio exercises to your fitness routine include an increased breath rate and deeper breaths, increased blood flow, all of which improve the lungs’ ability to utilize oxygen for all cells in the body. The most significant improvement surrounding cardio and the lungs is in the respiratory muscles’ ability to work effectively.
Utilize Breathing Exercises
One of the most notable effects of improved breathing is increased metabolism, and we all know that higher metabolism = higher weight loss. There are a variety of breathing exercises which you can do improve your quality of breaths, like deep breathing, diaphragm breathing, and pursed lips breathing, all of which help you engage different parts of the core and surrounding respiratory muscles.
Use a Respiratory Muscle Training Device Like PowerLung
While focusing on improving your fitness is likely your main goal, don’t neglect your respiratory system, which fuels the rest of the body with oxygen. Adding a device like the PowerLung allows you to spend some time improving respiratory function, which will lead to benefits for your exercise routine and everyday life. With models designed for casual athletes and musicians, serious amateur athletes and even elite athletes, there is a PowerLung model perfect for you needs. Discover the PowerLung difference here.
