The first thought that came to my mind was lung capacity (I played flute in middle school... I was awful). So, who has the best lung capacity- swimmers, cyclists, or runners? My initial thought was swimmers, but apparently running is a higher-intensity aerobic sport compared to swimming and cycling (note: this is not to say that you can't do a swimming or cycling workout that is higher-intensity compared to running). On the other hand, swimming is specifically recommended for building lung capacity, as are some yoga exercises.
I started to try and look up the lung capacities of various athletes to get a quantitative comparison... but I couldn't figure out a good way to factor in that Michael Phelps is a lot taller than most marathon runners (by nature, taller people have a greater lung capacity). And, it doesn't matter how big your lungs are if you can't process oxygen effectively, which is more related to VO2.
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