Heart and lung functions in swimmers and nonathletes during growth

Pulmonary adaptations to swim and inspiratory muscle training

“…Our findings are in agreement with others that elite swimmers exhibit elevated DL CO values, greater than predicted (Armour et al 1993;Magel and Andersen 1969;Miller et al 1989;Mostyn et al 1963;Vaccaro et al 1977) and greater than non-athletes (Andrew et al 1972;Yost et al 1981), even when corrected for body size and total lung capacity (K CO ) (Magel and Andersen 1969;Mostyn et al 1963;Yost et al 1981). It has been suggested that elite swimmers have a high DL CO , as they must be able to transfer large amounts of oxygen across the alveolar-capillary membrane when the alveolar oxygen tension (PaO 2 ) falls to low levels (Mostyn et al 1963), and that the enlarged DL CO is a consequence of an increased pulmonary capillary blood volume (Miller et al 1989).…”

“…The present study confirms previous findings that swim training augments static and dynamic lung volumes (Andrew et al 1972;Clanton et al 1987;Courteix et al 1997). It has been suggested that the repeated expansion of the of the lung to TLC, which occurs during moderate-to high-intensity swim training is the stimulus for the enhanced VC and TLC observed in swimmers (Cordain and Stager 1988).…”

“…However, swimmers appear to be a special group of athletes with lung volumes greater than predicted and with larger VC and total lung capacities (TLC) when compared to controls (Andrew et al 1972;Cordain et al 1990;Doherty and Dimitriou 1997;Pherwani et al 1989;Zinman and Gaultier 1986). As well, enhanced pulmonary diffusion capacity has been reported when swimmers are compared to predicted values (Armour et al 1993;Miller et al 1989;Vaccaro et al 1980) and non-athletes (Yost et al 1981).…”

“…It is unknown at present whether the greater lung volumes observed in swimmers is a result of the swim training itself (Andrew et al 1972;Clanton et al 1987;Cordain and Stager 1988), genetic endowment (Barr-Or et al 1994), increases in respiratory muscle strength (Clanton et al 1987;Doherty and Dimitriou 1997;Zauner and Benson 1981), changes in the compliance of the chest wall (Clanton et al 1987;Zauner and Benson 1981), alveolar hyperplasia or expansion (Armour et al 1993;Zauner and Benson 1981) or the promotion of isotropic lung growth (Courteix et al 1997). The explanation could also include selective factors in which larger lung volumes or enhanced pulmonary function could allow for enhanced swim performance such that as the swim population becomes more elite and lung physiology begins to deviate more from normal values.…”

The effect of a controlled frequency breath holding training program on running economy among elite college swimmers.

“…In the elite athlete, the respiratory system may be a limiting factor to endurance performance (Bye, Farkas, & Roussos, 1983;Lavin, Guenette, Smoliga, & Zavorsky, 2013). Swimming is an interesting event to study the respiratory system since swimmers usually have very large lungs (Andrew, Becklake, Guleria, & Bates, 1972).…”