[wjohnson100]

Regarding breathe ups. I think that mostly you have to experiment to see what works for you. And it is also dependent on what kind of feeling you like at the beginning of a hold. Right now I am doing 40 minutes of in 2 seconds, hold 4 seconds, out 2 seconds, no packs or purge breaths, final exhale, then inhale and hold. As an example, this morning that got me to an easy, no contraction, 6:01 hold. My current training goal is to get used to this so it all becomes automatic, and then push to 7:00 or higher from there. I figure I can go at least 1:30 to 2:00 past when contractions start under normal circumstances, so conservatively I think I can get at least a minute more without much difficulty. Stay tuned. Right now my difficulty is in switching focus from delaying contractions to extending the hold. The good news is that I am getting no hypoxic symptoms at 6:00 and have gone as far as 6:08 without contractions. It will be interesting to see if that inproves efficiency at all. Also regarding breathe ups. My breathe up has morphed alot in the last 4 months. If I had tried this breathe up 4 months ago I would probably have passed out. This particular breathe up is geared to fit in the 45 minutes prior to a hold in competition and may be too long to be practical in a real world situation. On the other hand, it is very easy, repeatable, relaxing, and stress free. One thing for sure, there is no magic bullet that I know of in the way of breathe ups, but your breathe up is the key to a long hold especially when ditching warmup holds.