General Exercise
Reduces Snoring

How can exercise help my snoring? Let me count the ways…

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Although exercise, alone, isn’t likely to cure your snoring there are several important benefits, to your general health and your level of snoring, that can be obtained from a regular workout. And we’re not talking about an Olympic effort, in fact the level of exercise required to have a beneficial impact may not even raise a sweat. That exercise includes some simple stretching, maybe mowing the lawn or a light walk.

So what are these benefits?

Increased Flexibility
As we get older we tend to exercise less and become less flexible. Unless you have been participating in a stretching or exercise program you can’t bend and extend your body today like you once could. Most exercise extends the range of motion of our limbs past our everyday limits. The obvious signs are in how far we can stretch our arms and legs and if we can touch our toes etc. But your flexibility has an impact on your breathing muscles and the muscles that support your structure. It makes sense that if the muscles of the chest and abdomen are less flexible it will be harder to breathe. Exercise and stretching helps your breathing muscle's flexibility and range of motion.


Improved Lung Capacity
And in a similar fashion, the ability to draw on our full lung potential depends on how we extend it. If we are not exercising regularly our lung capacity reduces over time in response to the lower need. This is a “use it or lose it” principle. If you don’t use your muscles they become weaker, if you don’t use your lung capacity it becomes less. To take a full breathe takes effort, But the fuller the size of your maximum breath, the easier it is to breathe in your normal range. If you don’t keep your capacity up then it will finally fall to a level where your full capacity is your normal breath, and even normal breathing becomes forced and difficult.

Toned Muscles
The more you exercise your whole body, including your breathing muscles, the more toned they become. The more you extend your body and muscles the easier it becomes to use them in general. This applies to your breathing system. The more you lift weights the easier it is to lift weights. The more you breathe through your nose, the easier it is to breathe through your nose, and the less likely your nasal passages are going to collapse.

Balanced Muscle Groups and Better Posture
It is thought that the collapsing airways that cause obstructive sleep apnea maybe be partly due to unbalanced muscle groups. Muscles normally work in groups contracting in opposing directions. This is how you can flex and straighten your arm. One set does the bending, another the straightening. But if one set dominates the other, then the function of the joint may become unstable. Likewise if the muscles of the neck and throat become unbalanced this could lead to snoring and sleep apnea.

Poor posture is an indication of unbalanced muscle groups. Sensible stretching and exercising means more balanced muscle combinations and better posture. Interestingly, neck length and size have been linked to snoring. You are more likely to snore if you have a thick or a short neck. Apparent neck length is affected by posture. If you push your shoulders forward and up then you appear to have a shorter neck. And likewise if you push your shoulders back and down you appear to have longer neck.

For great information about a balanced workout, general fitness and getting in shape try Global Health and Fitness . There are regimes for all levels. There are some free tools like the BMR calcualtor, carbohydrate, calorie and protein counters amongst many others. The site has lots of other useful information from recipes to fitness articles. There is plenty of helpful information on this site and a good place to start is with the free fitness analysis , so take some time to look around.


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