[Jason Billows]

Hi Pete.

Keep these posts coming. They're quite interesting and I appreciate being able to learn from the time you're putting into it seeing as I don't have the time available to turn myself into a guinepig.

When you do your sub-neutral breathing do you do any purging before you begin your static? It sounds to me as if you don't. I find that quite interesting seeing as the Dr.s who spoke at the Worlds were saying that Co2 levels were the main limiting factor to static times. They also noted that their studies showed experienced freedivers were doing longer breath holds primarily due to better purging technique, lowering their Co2 levels before a static and therefore allowing more of it to accumulate before getting close to maximum levels during the hold.

Great to hear Jill had some good statics. I think that a lack of contractions with beginners is a common thing. Julie, my wife, was doing 4 minutes before she started having contractions. When they started they were coming around 2 minutes, but as she has improved her static times the contractions come later.

I seem to recall that when I began I was doing close to 4 minutes before I started getting contractions.

Maybe it is because many beginners can't relax and their tense muscles simply don't contract in the same way. Once you get used to relaxing the body is more sensitive to those unintentional movements.

Jason