[polliwog]

Look at the exercises used by the people who try to set deep-sea diving records. There is one that I used in my mid-to-late teens in which you force mouth-fulls of air into your lungs, stretching your lungs beyond what you can achieve by just deep breathing. I recently saw the technique used in a documentary about divers attempting to set new deep-diving records.

[Becca]

If you could just go to your GP every time you have a medical query, you could probably do that, but that would cost, like, $60,000 there, wouldn't it?

Why do you think I'm asking here?

[Jordan~]

Make friends with medical students, then.

[Becca]

Ha, well I do have a friend that's a nurse. And I have definitely whined to her before "what's wronnnnnng with me???"

[milkisobel]

my sis have a good friend, who's overweighted but as me, and she has the same lungs capacity of my sis's cat!!!! she breath with the same pace, and her heart is racing even she's just cool on a couch. My heart go very slow and since i made some exercices, i'm ok, singing is a very good thing too, sing loud on JN is very good, as she's got a huge kung capacity furthermore in the racing lyrics part
http://www.wikihow.com/Increase-Your-Lung-Capacity
you have plenty on the web, sometines i'm restricted but it's due to anxiety crisis

[Becca]

I went swimming today. That's part of my lung capacity increasing plan.
But I used to be a competitive swimmer, and I remember being somewhat aware of the lung capacity thing even then, though it didn't bother me as much because I wasn't really trying to sing. I can still hold my breath a pretty long time I guess, but I can't play a damn flute! I tried again today and I played 2 notes and was completely out of air. I don't understand how people play the flute. I think maybe I am so used to the ridiculous amount of resistance of the oboe that maybe I'm just expelling all my air too quickly? I have no idea. I'll ask my oboe teacher or something.
I talked to my singing coach about it and she theorized similarly, but then I also wondered if I can't take in enough air and she explained how you shouldn't feel like your shoulders are raising up or whatever (this is hard to explain without the visual) but that your rib cage is sort of expanding in the back? And so when I tried to breathe deeply with that in mind I got this redonkulous muscle spasm in my like...lat muscle? My teacher was like "ok, then you need to stretch."
It's like my muscles are so tense they don't want to let my lungs expand! I'm sure anxiety plays a role in that somewhere...
I dunno. Maybe I have just gotten used to breathing really shallowly my whole life and my body has learned to cope with it somehow. I wonder if it has something to do with my pulse seeming too fast. My resting heartrate has always seemed on the fast side to me, even when I did sports and exercised all the time and was in great shape. But that could also be anxiety-related. haha

[doublewuzzy]

I went swimming today. That's part of my lung capacity increasing plan.
But I used to be a competitive swimmer, and I remember being somewhat aware of the lung capacity thing even then, though it didn't bother me as much because I wasn't really trying to sing. I can still hold my breath a pretty long time I guess, but I can't play a damn flute! I tried again today and I played 2 notes and was completely out of air. I don't understand how people play the flute. I think maybe I am so used to the ridiculous amount of resistance of the oboe that maybe I'm just expelling all my air too quickly? I have no idea. I'll ask my oboe teacher or something.
I talked to my singing coach about it and she theorized similarly, but then I also wondered if I can't take in enough air and she explained how you shouldn't feel like your shoulders are raising up or whatever (this is hard to explain without the visual) but that your rib cage is sort of expanding in the back? And so when I tried to breathe deeply with that in mind I got this redonkulous muscle spasm in my like...lat muscle? My teacher was like "ok, then you need to stretch."
It's like my muscles are so tense they don't want to let my lungs expand! I'm sure anxiety plays a role in that somewhere...
I dunno. Maybe I have just gotten used to breathing really shallowly my whole life and my body has learned to cope with it somehow. I wonder if it has something to do with my pulse seeming too fast. My resting heartrate has always seemed on the fast side to me, even when I did sports and exercised all the time and was in great shape. But that could also be anxiety-related. haha

The breathing thing: oftentimes if you tell someone to take a deep breath, they will shrug up their shoulders and breathe using only the top portion of the lungs. If you breathe in and imagine filling up your belly first (you can watch it expand), you won't shrug up your shoulders. Another visual would be like filling up a pitcher of water - the bottom has to fill with water and the water level gradually rises. You want to fill up your lungs the same way. If you lie on the floor and take breaths, you'll be doing it the right way (belly moving).

As for flute, it's most definitely the resistance. I played clarinet and when I took flute lessons I spent half the time giggling because I'd run out of air and get light-headed. Over time you adjust to the amount of air you have to use (and you get a bit better at controlling it, too).

[Becca]

Oh, I have no problem belly breathing...but I feel like I almost took that too far and was like, only belly breathing and not using the full upper part of my lungs? I don't know if that makes any sense. It's not so much that I shrug my shoulders up as that I seem to tense them (and probably my neck too). I dunno. I am working on making myself do these super boring long note exercises and timing myself and stuff so I can measure if there's any improvement, and I am getting really pissed off that I'm not getting instantly better.
I wonder if learning to play the flute would help my singing/breathing problems. For a while I kept having dreams that I was playing the flute and I was like "WHAT DOES IT MEEEEAN?" So maybe it's like, a sign or something.
Or I could take up didgeridoo, because I had the same problem with that. I don't have problems with any other instrument as far as I can tell, so I think it might be a resistance thing. So maybe I am expelling all my air too quickly (or am not focusing it properly?). But if that's the case, I haven't quite worked out how to stop doing that. And the thing is, I hardly ever play oboe anymore. BUT I guess it's hard to undo 15 years of habit?

[Cosmia]

I bought a harp! Got a second-hand cheapy 29-string lever harp, they're supposed to be super crappy but it sounds lovely to me. No idea how to play it, though I can play greensleeves.

[Andrew]

@cosmia that's so awesome

I have an acoustic guitar! I love it but I ache so much for more instruments (most desired right now being a tom tom, an accordion and a harmonica). There's only so many sounds a guitar can recreate.

[sadie]

I play the piano. I can play Good Intentions quite well.

[milkisobel]

sorry i'm just too lazy red previous pages, did anyone (sara?) plays scandinavian dulcimer?

[rainbowdash]

I've started the banjo. It's really fun.

[polliwog]

My newest!

[milkisobel]

so nice !