Digital Scryer

Here I’m going to be talking about people with enhanced breathing capabilities; Greater lung volume/capacity, breath holding etc.

Tanya Streeter

First up is Tanya Streeter. She’s a record breaking free diver and breath holder. Like all breath holders here, she has an abnormally large lung volume. According to this article, Tanya is unique in that she can still function at 50% blood oxygen levels whereas normal people can get permanent brain/heart damage at 70% blood oxygen levels.

Also mentioned in that last article is Ed Viesturs, a man who uses his enhanced lung volume (7 litres, as opposed to the usual 5 litres for men of his height) to climb mountains without oxygen tanks.

Peter Reed

Finally is Peter Reed, who is not only a championship rower, he also saved people from a burning building.

He has the world’s largest recorded lung capacity at 11.68 litres, nearly twice the average man’s. What strikes me most about him is that he looks like an average Joe. He doesn’t seemingly have an extra large or deformed chest cavity. It makes me wonder if his large lungs cost him some size in his other organs, like his heart, though it’s unlikely as he’s an Olympic athlete.

There are certain ways to train to get a larger lung capacity/volume, but there are genetic limits. As for the 50% blood oxygen levels of Ms. Streeter, I don’t think there’s any way to train for that so it’s up to genetic engineers to figure that one out.

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