[efattah]

derelictp,

I found a 'happy medium' to get the best of both worlds. The method I use is to do warm-ups without any breathe-up. Just one or two breaths, then hold. This makes you start with high CO2, so you don't end up with many hypoxia waste products. Also, I stop the warm-ups at SaO2 > 90%. For me, this means that no warm up can be more than 5 minutes. Still, on the last warm up I like to go for more than 5 minutes. In order to do that, and still not go below SaO2 = 90%, I 'pack' about three times every ten seconds through my snorkel; I do this only after about 4'30" or 5'00", and then stop around 6'00". This keeps the contractions going (and other adaptations), but gives a little extra O2 to prevent waste products from forming during the warm ups.

To summarize, my usual wet warm up is:
One breath, 3'30"
Rest 1'00" - 2'00"
Two breaths, 5'00"
Rest 2'00" - 3'00"
Two breaths, 6'00", packing 3 times every 10 seconds after 5'00"
Rest 5'00" - 7'00"
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