Increasing Time

[waterpanda]

Any tips/tricks/exercises that I can use to increase my breath-holding time?
Thanks guys,
panda

[Freedive WI]

There are many things that you can do but you must remember to have a buddy with you anytime you try something in the water.

Something to do at home, while laying on the couch, is to practice your breath-hold. You can breath slow and deep for two minutes, exhale completely, and then inhale in a three step process- stomach, chest, shoulders. Follow this with a good swallow, to hold the air in more comfortably, and hold until you feel that first contraction. Now, breath slow and deep for another two minutes and repeat. Your first two or three attempts probably won't be that great, but by time you get to your seventh one you'll be surprised how well you've done. 8 Attempts is more than enough per training session.

Another thing to try on the couch is what's called a "negative" hold. THese take much less time and kick in your dive reflex faster. Start by doing the same 2 minute breath-up and then EXHALE everything you can, and hold your breath on the exhale. Breath up for another two minutes and repeat. Your breath hold times with this method will be much less, maybe only 30 seconds. The more you exhale, the shorter they will be, and the more effective the training is.

On dry land you can also do yoga, to stretch out your rib cage and improve your breathing. Actually, a good yoga breath can almost double the time you can get out of a scuba tank without the dangers of skip-breathing.

There are also many other stretches that you can do, but this should be a good start. Fred and I can post other things we do if your still interested.

I train in the pool, on the tread-mill, with weights, on my bike, and in the lake. I don't so everything all the time, but choose to switch things around when I start to get bored with one acitivity. Underwater hockey starts next week and that will be a great way to workon my CO2 tollerence and recoveries.

Jon

[beeger]

Can you elaborate on this a bit more? I'm curious what this should feel like. Thanks.

[freedivernd]

Beeger,
the deal is most people have to change their breathing style for a full breath... we start out breathing when we're very young with our stomachs going in and out and somewhere along the line we think we have to expand our chest. (all right girls.. no smart remarks here ). For a good full lung, we go back to using our stomach muscles along with the diaghram first (so stomach expands), then expand the chest cavity for more air, then, raise the shoulders up while still drawing a breath to fill 'er up even more.
Then you can go even further by doing some packing (taking air into the mouth and pressing it into the lungs).. be careful with the packing though.. I'd recommend not going beyond the stage of slight discomfort at first.
Fred

[ccuda]

Guys,

..."is to practice your breath-hold. You can breath slow and deep for two minutes, exhale completely, and then inhale in a three step process- stomach, chest, shoulders." Do you mean breath IN slow and deep making it last the period of two minutes to do so, then exhale? Or do you mean breath IN and OUT slow and deep for two minutes, ending with an exhale and the rest...?

[waterpanda]

Looks like I sparked a good topic here! Thanks for all the help, I will work on it!

[Freedive WI]

In and out for two minutes.

You want a nice slow, complete, gas exchange as you breath. Hyperventilating is a HUGE no-no. IF you breath fast enough to get light-headed your doing it wrong. One good method to start with is to do a 5:0:10 breathing cycle. That menas you inhale for a count of 5, don't hold your breath, and then exhale for a count of 10. THis will bring your heart rate down.

Before you do your last inhale you want to exhale as much as possible first, to get rid of as much co2 as possible, and then inhale as much new air as you can.

Your inhale should be as Fred said. Stomach- chest- back- even neck. By "neck" I mean if you tilt your head back at the end of your inhale you can suck in a little bit extra air. This part is eaiser to do on a dive, as the water will quickly squeeze the air in your throat down to a comfortable level.

Relaxing is the key to freediving. Big lungs don't make as much of a difference as being very relaxed in the water.

Some doctors from Spain actually developed some training tables that Umberto Pellizarri used for his workouts. He started to teach others how to use these tables at his "Apnea Academy" in Italy. THese tables have now been passed around the world and you can even down load your own set off of the FREEDIVE UK.COM website. They are divided into O2 tables and CO2 tables. You work them on opposite days. I was using them earlier this spring, but this time of year I mostly use the pool and bike to train.

Jon

[beeger]

Thanks for the clarification around the stomach/diaphragm breathing vs. chest breathing ... I was familiar with this concept but had not heard it elaborated in terms of involving the chest and shoulders and even neck. This is good stuff to know. Seems like in addition to yoga, basic meditation might be of some value here also. It can involve similar practices in terms of breathing.

[Freedive WI]

Yoga and static breath holds are great ways to get relaxed and stay down longer. They will proobalby be the most effective things, but sitting on a couch and holding your breath isn't exactly the most exciting training in the world.

There are some other, fun, things that you can do to increase your time. Just remember to ALWAYS have a buddy with you when you attempt these things in the water.

One nice thing to do is to swim laps with your mask, snorkel and fins on. My local YMCA even lets me bring in my monofin to train with! 8) Surface swimming in full skindiving gear for 30 minutes, or more, at a time is a great way to stay in shape for scuba diving as well.

To take it a step further you can try this, swim one length underwater and the second length above water. Do this at a nice, slow pace for 30 minutes. It might be a little bit hard at first, but you'll kick in the dive reflex soon enough.

IF a full length is too far you can try 1/2 a length under and 1/2 a length on the surface. The Ausssie's call these "Bogdat's" and they are a great way to train for underwater hockey- also a great way to train!

On dry land you can do something called an "Apnea Walk". This can be started by taking a big breath and walking as far as you can, doing this on a soft surface is best- like grass!

To take this a step further you can try doing the full "breath-up" that Fred and I have already explained and then sit on a bench for one minute while holding your breath. Once the minute is done you can get up and walk as far as possible while still holding your breath. Mark off how far you go and then go back to the bench to sit down and breath-up again. Like all things dealing with breath-holding, the first one is hard and the fourth or fifth one is much easier.

Fred, what other things do you like to do???

Jon

[Freedive WI]

I was in the bookstore today and saw an article about breath-hold training in the latest edition of Sea Kayaker magazine. It seems as though breath control is important for those eskimo rolls.

Jon