I cant break the 2'00 mark! HELP!

[TwitchyFish]

Hi all. I just joined this forum here, and im from canada. Im 15 years old, and i have been training out of water for about 2 weeks. my absolute, unbeatable record doing static out of water, is 2 minutes and 4 seconds. I just can not seem to beat it! i hear everyone else is getting 5 and 6 minutes, which is average(i guess). my average is like 1'20, but i've been training rele hard and i seem to be going backwards. I do my best to relax and everything, and i fight contractions and everything, i just cannot seem to beat 2'04. any help would be appreciated!

[colt.45]

I hads the same prpblem when I first started out a couple months ago I find the best thig to do is just keep practicing holding to youre max for you it is all about mental diciplin right now. Remember if you havn't passed. out you can hold longer

[josedesucre]

I can see you choose a good nickname, Twitchy. It sounds like a synonym for impatient. I am a spearo, not a dedicated freediver, so I can not give you any technical advice. I am sure some of our freediver instructors here will help you in the next few hours. Meanwhile, please believe me when I tell you that two weeks is too short a time for you to expect better results. Your body needs more time to "learn" what you are training for. Just be a little bit more patient and please STAY BETWEEN YOUR LIMITS until you feel more comfortable to try to expand them. You don't need to black out to find out. You have plenty of time ahead of you, so be safe and enjoy the ride. Good luck.

[Waterysmile]

Have some patience and hope, TwitchyFish! There is a good thread here for beginners with lots of advice and training tips http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?t=64959

[Stavros]

Dear Twitchyfish... what can one say... you are just too twitchy I guess.
Lets do this the fast way:
5 to 6 minutes of breath hold is not the norm...not by a long shot. 6 minutes static comes from years of training and learning and endless static training in the pool. If you can do 6 minutes you are within the 50 best competitive freedivers in the world (AIDA 2006 Ranking) so just relax...

A few pointers on how to improve... find a local freediving club/group where you can train. You'll get years worth of knowledge from the word go. Then you train and train and train...and see if you enjoy yourself doing this.

After you 've done that for some time and train for a while somewhere down the line you can attend a freediving clinic where you can learn even more cool stuff on how to dive deeper and for a longer time.

Then you are patient and train and you see improvement and all of a sudden this freediving is a way of life and you rarely go 2 days without being in the water...

The bottom line of the above as you can probably imagine is: Be patient - enjoy yourself freediving - train... AND NEVER FREEDIVE / BREATHHOLD ALONE...EVER...

I wish you all the best in this new adventure you are getting yourself into...and always remember to have fun ( AND BE SAFE)

Cheers Stavros Kastrinakis

[samdive]

try the following if you are not already
lie on your back
lie as still as you can
don't have a pillow
put your arms by your sides, palms up
try without music, tune in to the quiet or the small sounds around you
try with music, stick on an Ipod with some calming tunes
use two watches - start one at the beginning of the hold and do NOT look at it again until the absolute finish, start the other one when you get the first contraction and try to wait 30 seconds before you give up, then a minute on the next hold, then a minute and a half
breathe deep and slow before you hold, get a heart rate monitor and don't start your hold until your heartrate is very close to what it is when you first wake up in the morning before you have got out of bed
do your holds in the morning, before you do anything else, before you eat anything

just a few things to try if you haven't yet! all of them have helped me....

S

can't crack 5 minutes personally - any pointers?????

[TwitchyFish]

Geez you guys thanks for the support. I guess it'll just take time. I just wanna say, you guys have a great forum here! Back on pbreview.com (paintball) almost everyone is either an idiot or an arsehole. I will definately be using this forum more. Thanks for the help everyone!

PS: If anyone is living in Regina, Sask. and looking for a dive buddy, I need one!

[Tompa]

Originally Posted by TwitchyFish

almost everyone is either an idiot or an arsehole.

Here at DB we can do two things at once!

[Stavros]

Originally Posted by samdive

S

can't crack 5 minutes personally - any pointers?????

Sam Try the following static warm up

First part is exhale statics

normal breath up

Exhale hold for something that feels relatively comfy like 1 to 1:30 or thereabouts
2 minute breathup
Exhale hold for same time as 1st
1:30 breathup
Exhale hold for same time
1 minute breathup
Exhale hold same time
30 sec breathup
Exhale hold same time

5 minute breath up

Then start an exhale hold as before but now at around 1minute or when you are beginning to struggle get your face our of the water and do 3 packs (don't do a normal inhale just 3 packs) then hold for 15secs then another 3 packs then another 15 secs then another 3 packs...etc for the max you can go...you should go for 60%-80% of your max.

5 minute breath up then a normal hold (same as you do on your max) to the first contraction

5-6 minute breath up and then max...

Try it out and let me know what you think....

(although it sounds like a lot it is not as the breath ups and holds are not very long)

Cheers Stavros

PS. Legal desclaimer - do not try this at home ...children do not practise apnea unsupervised ...and Twitchy do not try this warm up since you need to be quite experienced in order for this to actually work

[TwitchyFish]

well, for me to make a 1:00 hold on empty lungs (step 1) would be tough enough as is. Dont worrry about me!

[amihov]

Hi I am from Canada to. I leave in Vancouver . First Twitchy you are very lucky to be 15 years old . You are growing now if you do the right thing in few months hard training you will be able to do 4 minutes or even more. Yours lungs total volume can grow bigger. You have to spend more hours swimming in the pool . Well start whit some general training . If you want to achieve high results you need to be able to swim 5 to 7 km for about 1 hour and 30 minutes. And you have to do this 3 to 5 times a week. If you can make 5 km in 1 hour swimming in the pool then I promise you that you will be able to learn how to hold you breath longer. Don’t get in to this thing whit tables and breath-ups just swim . I have train swimming for 7 years since I was 6 years old and i can tell you one thing i learn how to hold my breath for more than 4 minutes in 1 month. If you train hard for 1 or 2 years you will be amazed whit the results.

[samdive]

Thanks Stavros - I just tried this dry - it does some pretty funky things to your brain (and makes your whole chest feel mighty weird!)

it DID push back my contractions loads on the final holds - by about a minute which is lots for me - unfortunately when they did kick in they were massive and I didn't get a longer breathhold out of it - will try it again maybe with less holds first as I think I might have just been a bit knackered from doing so many holds and gave up too easily!

Thanks

Sam

[TwitchyFish]

Originally Posted by amihov

Hi I am from Canada to. I leave in Vancouver . First Twitchy you are very lucky to be 15 years old . You are growing now if you do the right thing in few months hard training you will be able to do 4 minutes or even more. Yours lungs total volume can grow bigger. You have to spend more hours swimming in the pool . Well start whit some general training . If you want to achieve high results you need to be able to swim 5 to 7 km for about 1 hour and 30 minutes. And you have to do this 3 to 5 times a week. If you can make 5 km in 1 hour swimming in the pool then I promise you that you will be able to learn how to hold you breath longer. Don’t get in to this thing whit tables and breath-ups just swim . I have train swimming for 7 years since I was 6 years old and i can tell you one thing i learn how to hold my breath for more than 4 minutes in 1 month. If you train hard for 1 or 2 years you will be amazed whit the results.

Ok, will do. I asked my dad about cardiac training, like running and stuff, and he said strengthinign your heart and lungs with definately help, so i will definately have to try what you said. Thanks for the tip, I appreciate it!

[colt.45]

I am also 15 so I can kindof identify with you on trying to break the 2 minute mark. for me (who had spent the last 3 years playing football and runing track) it took about a week to break the 2 minute mark. the trick is just to relax and start out with a hold of about 45 seconds then add 15 seconds. continue doing this untill you get to about 1:45 and then take about 5 minutes just taking deep slow breaths and relaxing and when you feel like you are ready start the clock and go for it. while you are holding youre breath for the record dont look at the clock, dont think about holding youre breath dont wonder how long it's been, just sit there and hold untill you cant take it and then look at the clock, you will usally find that you have pased youre goal by several seconds, and if you are not quite there yet you should be close enough to gut it out for the last couple of seconds. Using this method I reached the four minute mark in about a month and a half ( I then tried to beat my four minute mark and passed out ) well any way good luck and happy hunting!

[cougar]

I dont pretend to be an expert as i havent been doing this that long. However what i do is this, Apnea walks, just hold your breath while you walk rest and repeat, try and go further each time. Another practise ive been doing is at the local pool, 50 mtr frontcrawl sprints, 1 big inhale at the start and just go for it. This distance im covering in well under 30 secs, now i know that isnt much of a breath hold but it really hurts done as a sprint. Now i dont have a clue how its working but it has helped me go from 2-30 to 4-30,the only thing is i seem stuck at this now(the last couple of weeks i dont seem able to dent it), this static i do dry sat in the arm chair watching the telly. I would appreciate any thoughts you guys might have, cheers..