Lung Capacity

[Albertibass]

Just Curious to know if anyone knows how to measure it. I understand that the unit used is liters (well i think). I guess im just curious to see where im at.

[chronolith]

Good place to start:

http://www.windsongpress.com/

[brianf]

Here's the formula:

Male:
Height2 X (((1.541 - (4.06 X Age) / 1000)) - ((6.14 X Age2 )/100000))

Female:
Height2 X (((1.332 - (4.06 X Age) / 1000)) - ((6.14 X Age2 )/100000))

[brianf]

That means I should be 7'2"!!

OK, we got a wise *** here who, before old age set in, had a 8.94 liter capacity. All I can say is that it does not matter how big it is but what you do with it.

[brianf]

7.94

Sorry, I inflated it so the world would think you were really superhuman. What I didn't say was that you had one lung.

Yep, there are those times you walk off stage saying "So that's what the old man ment." It happens to all of us.

BTW did the chest problems happen because some big goof stood on it??

[Bandmaster]

Here's the formula:

Male:
Height2 X (((1.541 - (4.06 X Age) / 1000)) - ((6.14 X Age2 )/100000))

Female:
Height2 X (((1.332 - (4.06 X Age) / 1000)) - ((6.14 X Age2 )/100000))

OK, I get the Height and Age part, but what is meant by Height2 and Age2? Is it supposed to mean "squared"? Is the Height in inches or is it metric? Is Age in years or months?

[brianf]

Yes, it is squared.

This is the formula from the American Thorasic Society and is a pain to use. I put it into a spreadsheet and let the computer do the job. The result is a chart that is located at http://www.windsongpress.com/breathing% ... evices.htm

[Paul Scott]

The problem is that there is a WIDE variation in individual lung capacities and this formula provides only a rough estimate for what a person might have. The only way to really know is to take a test with a properly calibrated medical spirometer. I own one myself and have been testing students and colleagues for about 7 years-the results can be surprising.

[Rick Denney]

Those of us with very large chests will find them useful, as it takes a lot of effort/power to fill a large capacity in the same time as a smaller capacity. I certainly use one. (when I remember)

My vital capacity improved by half a liter just by going metric! (Brian--check out the results for 1.85 meters at age 50 and 6'0" at age 50--they should be the same, right? And I can't make your formula work no matter what assumptions I make--the parentheses don't line up sensibly.)

But Mike's point is, to me, more important. Jacobs said, "I have a short bow and I change it often" at a time when his vital capacity was half that of Roger Bobo's. I find myself changing my bow often--but I just can't seem to get the air into my lungs fast enough.

Part of it is making sure I do it before I get down into the bottom third of my capacity, which recruits all sorts of compression activities that have to be undone before I can breathe in again. Part of it is heeding all those conductor requests not to breathe where it will break the phrase. And part of it is being unable to really fill my lungs in a very short time, which makes extended passages a losing battle, where I'm spending all my time in the bottom third of my capacity rather than the top third.

I'm doing better after years of working on it, but it's a bigger challenge than just about anything tuba players face. And if they don't think they face it now, they will later.

Rick "who does not believe that endurance training is all that helpful in addressing this issue" Denney

[sloan]

Here's the formula:

Male:
Height2 X (((1.541 - (4.06 X Age) / 1000)) - ((6.14 X Age2 )/100000))

Female:
Height2 X (((1.332 - (4.06 X Age) / 1000)) - ((6.14 X Age2 )/100000))

These can't be *the* formulae - surely you have left off the error bars!

The SECOND thing you learn when dealing with data like this is that "the mean is useless without some measure of the variation".

The FIRST thing? - be sure that the distribution looks vaguely like a bell curve, or at the very least make sure that it is unimodal...

[sloan]

Part of it is heeding all those conductor requests not to breathe where it will break the phrase.

I've developed a simple strategy: find all the places where the conductor has said "do NOT breathe here"...and then write in breath marks halfway between each "no-no".

The breath marks are NECESSARY, because - left to my own devices - I typically run out of air just as we get to a major "no-no". Breathing when 1/3 full doesn't work either - it's either breathe when 1/2 full...or not at all.

Lately, the worst spots for me are where the music looks like 2 4-bar phrases (and, in fact, is marked with two phrase marks), but the conductor begins the discussion of the piece by saying "whatever you do, DO NOT BREATHE at the end of measure 4!" (see Holst....)

[sloan]

Most of us, as wind musicians have a much higher capacity than the medical profession predict. Mine was %135 of what they predicted. This proves that with the right excercise capacity can be increased.
[

Or...perhaps it proves that those with higher-than-average lung capacity are preferentially successful as wind musicians?

[Donn]

Brian--check out the results for 1.85 meters at age 50 and 6'0" at age 50--they should be the same, right?

Don't think volume as a function of height and age can be independent of units.

[Rick Denney]

Don't think volume as a function of height and age can be independent of units.

I was referring to the tables on Brian's web page.

Rick "who had already given up trying to figure out the equation hierarchy and units" Denney