Hi Abaddon,
I dont think holding your breath as long as u can a lot of times under water is going to increase lung capasity, and i dont think its too good for you!!!considering it can be very dangerous...
Your lungs are obviously getting used to exercise, just dont push soo hard when your cycling for a while, also try some jogging maybe, as your landing on your left foot breath in for to steps, breath out for 2 steps, always starting that new breath on your left foot, and breathing out on your left foot..thats one way of increasing lung capasity..try not too run or cycle too many hills for a while until your lungs get used to exercise, thats really good that you quit smoking too, really stupid habit!
hope this helped happy exercising too you

Hi Abaddon,
Many years ago I read details of an excellent exercise to increase your lung capacity,try this ,
Sit relaxed in chair.
Breathe in to the count of four,
Hold that breath to the count of four,
Breathe out to the count of four,
Don't breathe to the count of four.

Then repeat the above cycle five times ,
three times a day until it becomes easy.

Then do the above cycle plus a set going to the count
of five for each section.
As your lungs develop you should gradually increase the
numbers, remember do not strain but practice makes
perfect.
Good luck with it
Let me know how you go.

Hi Abaddon,
Many years ago I read details of an excellent exercise to increase your lung capacity,try this ,
Sit relaxed in chair.
Breathe in to the count of four,
Hold that breath to the count of four,
Breathe out to the count of four,
Don't breathe to the count of four.

Then repeat the above cycle five times ,
three times a day until it becomes easy.

Then do the above cycle plus a set going to the count
of five for each section.
As your lungs develop you should gradually increase the
numbers, remember do not strain but practice makes
perfect.
Good luck with it
Let me know how you go.

Hi Abaddon,
How are you going with your " Breathing Exercises ".
You should be up to a count of 6 by now .
Stick with it , in time you will expand your lung capacity enormously.
Let me know your progress.

Cheers Ian

Hi
Don't know if anyone would agree with this but I kind of had the same problem, I started yoga and the yoga breathing had quite an effect on my lung capacity. :)

yeh yoga breathing does increase the amount of air you take in by forcing the diaphram to expand more than in general shallow breathing that people tend to do.

For me i find yoga breathing to be a stress relieving, relaxing and even rejuvenating breath

pilates breathing is also great but works differently to yoga breathing

Ok but my advice in this situation is to gradually increase exercise load as your fitness increases and maybe try doing some snorkelling because this will force your intercostal muscles etc to work harder and adapt, giving you better breathing capacity