Very good question. I have researched this extensively.
Human myoglobin levels, as you stated, vary between 4-7mg/g of dry muscle.
I heard that penguins, seals and whales are 60-81mg/g, but maybe you're right, and some go up to 100mg/g.
Myoglobin in elite human cyclists was found to be no different than myoglobin of couch potatoes.
Further, power training and endurance training were both found to actually reduce myoglobin levels in athletes.
The only method ever discovered to actually increase myoglobin levels was to do high intensity exercise in hypoxia. Even then, the two studies which showed that, didn't actually measure the before & after myoglobin levels, they simply proved that the mRNA for myoglobin increased after the high intensity exercise in hypoxia, meaning that the body was signalling to grow more myoglobin, assuming enough iron and other raw materials were available.
To my knowledge, no one has ever measured the myoglobin levels of freedivers. Muscle biopsies to measure myoglobin are extremely expensive.
Whoever can discover an efficient training exercise to increase myoglobin levels will slowly but surely develop an insurmountable advantage over any opponents, and he/she could reach unimagineable proficiency in recreational diving & spearfishing.
Remember that in penguins, who inhale before diving, they store more O2 in their myoglobin than in either their lungs or their blood.
Likewise, a human with myoglobin of 60mg/g dry muscle would essential have a 2nd breath of air stored in their body, essentially doubing their diving capacity.
The only way I can think to make progress in this area is to actually invest $1000-$3000 for two or three muscle biopsies on ourself, then try some high intensity apnea exercises, and then do another muscle biopsy a month or two later, and see if the exercise was actually working. However, if anyone goes through that and actually finds an exercise which works, I doubt he/she would be willing to share that info for free!
But we can hope I guess.
One thing is for certain; whenever someone does discover such a training exercise, freediving will be taken to a level unimagineable by us today. Three hundred meter dynamics, one hundred and forrty meter constant ballast dives, seventy meter spearfishing dives... etc...
Eric Fattah
BC, Canada
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